Many of the opportunity zones are in gentrifying neighborhoods that were already attracting plenty of investment

See Luxury Developers in Miami Eye Low-Income Tax Breaks: A new federal tax-incentive program designed to help low-income neighborhoods is adding fuel to Miami’s real-estate boom by Konrad Putzier of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"But in the case of Miami and other U.S. cities, many of the opportunity zones are in gentrifying neighborhoods that were already attracting plenty of investment from hotel and luxury apartment developers."

"Some critics say there is evidence that Opportunity Zone money is pouring into Miami neighborhoods that already had developers’ money and attention.

Brett Theodos, a senior fellow at the think tank Urban Institute, recently ranked Miami-Dade’s opportunity zones on a scale from 1 to 10 based on how much investment they were already attracting before their designation: 41% of the county’s opportunity zones had a rating of 8 or higher, compared with 28% nationwide.

Speaking of Edgewater, he said: “It’s hard to imagine this tract being a good candidate for needing our help.” While the program will do a lot of good, he said, it will “also be used for things like converting affordable housing into luxury housing.”"