More than 6,500 census tracts have been nominated for OZ 2.0 across all 56 jurisdictions, and the Treasury Department now has every nomination in hand. Frances Kern Mennone of FBT Gibbons joined Jimmy Atkinson on-site at the Novogradac Opportunity Zones Conference in Washington, DC to discuss what happens between the nomination deadline and January 1, 2027, when the new tracts go live.
Plus, Frances explains how the designation process among states differed, from New York’s closed approach to the open processes in California and Texas, and why the final decision rested with the governor alone. She also shares how her roundtable of governor’s offices and OZ experts is shifting to education ahead of the next round of designations in ten years.
Guest: Frances Kern Mennone
Discussed on This Episode
- OZ 2.0 State Tracker
- Opportunity Zones Map
- All 56 Jurisdictions Have Submitted, but Only Half Have Published Their Lists
- Novogradac 2026 Opportunity Zones Conference
Episode Summary
The Nominations Are In
Jimmy Atkinson is joined on-site at the Novogradac Opportunity Zones Conference in Washington, DC by Frances Kern Mennone of FBT Gibbons, the designation diva. They recorded on October 29, the day after the extended deadline for states to submit their nominations, which Frances calls a monumental day.
Everybody is waiting on the OZ 2.0 map. The Treasury Department now has the nominations from all of the states: over 7,500 census tracts nominated by all 56 jurisdictions, including all 50 states, the five inhabited overseas territories, and the District of Columbia, whose mayor was able to submit 25 tracts. Not all of the states have shared their nominations publicly yet. Frances notes that a lot of states were pursuing what were considered off-list tracts and were waiting for detailed information from Treasury, which slowed some states down.
Why the "Designation Diva"?
Frances started tracking the designation process because it became apparent that a lot of the people making the designations were not doing this the first time around. State governments change, governors change, and staff changes. She estimates there are probably five or six people nationwide who did the designation process the first time around, which Jimmy points out was eight years ago.
They also needed to know more about Opportunity Zones. Since the government does not have a big role in the distribution of OZ capital, there really isn’t a role for state governments legislatively in the OZ process. So a lot of them were asking what the program is all about while doing designations at the same time.
How Did the State Designation Process Work?
Every state was able to create its own process within a nationwide window of ninety days that opened on July 1. Jimmy notes that this was known a full year ahead of time, and some states were more proactive in planning than others.
Each state was only able to nominate 25% of its eligible distressed census tracts, so there was an elimination process that had to happen. Because every state had its own methodology and framework, it was difficult to follow for investors and Opportunity Zone funds that invest in multiple states. Frances says that was a point of confusion in the marketplace. People initially assumed the ninety-day window was the submission window, but most states wanted to garner information from their marketplaces and hear from local governments about where they wanted to put census tracts. Jimmy notes that proactive states got that process started around April.
Frances created a weekly update for stakeholders on where each state stood: which states had released their process, the nomination portal, and who they were allowing to submit census tracts. Some states allowed the private sector to participate in nominations, usually with public sector approval or a recommendation backing it up.
Open Processes vs. Closed Processes
Jimmy calls New York State the biggest example of a state with a very closed process. From what he has heard, Empire State Development was on top of things and communicative with the Treasury Department, but nothing on its website suggests that anything was happening. California and Texas were two big states with a very open process.
Frances’s home state of Ohio had a portal that was only open for thirty days. She sees the designation process as an education process and an opportunity to educate the marketplace on the value of having an Opportunity Zone designation. If a state doesn’t run a good designation process, it misses the chance to explain to communities why OZ capital could be good for them.
Only the Governor’s Decision
This is an election year with more than 30 gubernatorial elections, Frances notes, and only the governor decides where the census tracts go. That caused some consternation in states where the legislatures wanted to be involved but were not. Jimmy adds that the statute puts the entire process with the CEO of each state or jurisdiction, which is the governor in most cases.
What Happens Next?
Treasury has said it will make its decisions by the end of December, in some cases by the end of November. But states are already hearing that their tracts have been certified, which is the final step. The tracts go live January 1, 2027. Early notice lets states inform their marketplaces and investors so they can begin planning in advance, which matters for an incentive so heavily involved in real estate.
On the Opportunity Zones map at opportunityzones.com/map, the green shaded tracts are the ones that have been nominated. Jimmy says that in 99.99% of cases they will become Opportunity Zones, but you’re never 100% sure until Treasury officially certifies them. Idaho and New Hampshire have issued press releases saying all of their tracts were officially designated, and Frances adds that Kentucky’s press release confirmed the same.
Jimmy estimates a little less than half of the states have published their lists. Arizona, Nebraska, and Texas were among the first, almost two months ago. Iowa, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Kentucky came out more recently. Jimmy expects to hear a lot more from the states after the election.
The Roundtable and the Next Ten Years
Frances also convenes governor’s offices on weekly Zoom calls. She had assumed someone was doing this at the federal level, but Treasury didn’t have time to get to everybody across 56 jurisdictions. So she started running roundtable meetings with OZ experts, including Jimmy, to help states understand what Treasury’s guidance means. The roundtable will continue and is now shifting to education, because there is no network of state points of contact.
Since this now has to happen every ten years, Jimmy says the roundtable will need to reconvene in late 2035 or early 2036, when perhaps 80 to 90% of the staffers and governors will have turned over. Frances notes that the United States Census will look at its lines in 2028, and there are things that can be done to prepare better for ten years from now, especially because of the permanency. She is excited about the next ten years.