Opportunity Zone Magazine Opportunity Zone Magazine Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 63
TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE INVESTING IN OPPORTUNITY ZONES
Triple Bottom Line Investing
in Opportunity Zones:
Financial Return, Economic
Activity, Job Creation &
Positive Social Impact
By Deborah J. Burns
A triple bottom line Opportunity Fund investment strategy builds on the double bottom line metrics but
invests in businesses and projects that have a positive social impact on the community.
S
imilar to when the EB-5 program was created, there
are high hopes that the Opportunity Zone legislation
will lead to investments in distressed communities
and neighborhoods throughout the United States. However,
the EB-5 program, created to stimulate foreign investment
in targeted employment areas throughout the U.S., also saw
funds flow into luxury high-rise buildings in Manhattan, Los
Angeles and Miami.
Now congress has tried again to stimulate investment in
distressed areas by passing The Investing for Opportunity Act
of 2017. This law offers significant tax advantages to investors
who put capital into distressed areas known as Opportunity
Zones. The question now is: Will Opportunity Zone investments
have the intended impact on distressed communities or will
it succumb to the same forces that have driven other federal
economic development programs to be limited to major cities?
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