Gov. Ned Lamont last week delivered welcoming remarks at the 2019 Connecticut Opportunity Zones Conference, hosted by the Department of Economic and Community Development at the Omni Hotel in New Haven. Photo courtesy of the state of Connecticut.

State officials are trying to highlight the many federal Opportunity Zones in Connecticut in an effort to draw investments before the program sunsets.

CTOpportunityZones.com was launched last week at the 2019 Connecticut Opportunity Zones Conference in New Haven. The conference included a matchmaking session where municipalities were able to pitch directly to investors through scheduled meetings, along with informal networking.

The tool provides a an interactive map and a searchable database of available projects with updated information provided by cities, towns and property owners. The database includes shovel-ready projects, transit-oriented development and relevant facts about local geography in Connecticut. Municipalities that have opportunity zones will be able to post and promote projects as they become available, making the database increasingly valuable to investors over time.

The zones can also be searched by multiple categories including municipality, investment size, and real estate and business asset types. Users can also gauge the proximity of opportunity zones to key locations, including colleges and universities, airports, ports, and historic districts. More in-depth project overviews, including funding, permit, and zoning information are also available.

An opportunity zone is a recently established federal designation created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to incentivize long-term investment typically in lower-income areas through certain advantages such as payment deferment. Connecticut has 72 opportunity zones that are located in 27 municipalities.

“A lot of states want to take this approach, but only a handful are able to actually get it implemented,” Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement. “We’ve seen the markets respond positively to our recent efforts to fix our transit, stabilize our state budget, and responsibly manage our debt. We’ve also heard from a lot of new investors about their renewed interest demonstrated by the range of new projects launched over the last year. It’s a smart time to look at what Connecticut has to offer, including its top-notch schools, talented workforce, and convenient geography.”