Massachusetts proposes 104 opportunity zones, 34 fewer than first round

The Healey administration has proposed 104 Massachusetts census tracts for the second round of the federal Opportunity Zone program, 34 fewer than the first round, according to the Boston Business Journal, as reported by Connect CRE on Oct. 12.

Left off the list are Cambridge's Alewife neighborhood, Somerville's Assembly Square, Malden Center and part of Medford.

Among the tracts that made the cut: a Dorchester zone containing the planned six-million-square-foot Dorchester Bay City development, a riverfront corridor in Fall River slated for development after a highway was demolished, and a site including Joint Base Cape Cod, around which major new housing and other projects are being studied.

The narrowing traces to federal rules rather than state preference: new restrictions cap would-be residents' household earnings at 70% of area median income, eliminate contiguous tracts and require poverty rates of at least 20%. The Boston Business Journal tied those criteria to the elimination of about 25% of the zones that qualified when the program was new.

Once the U.S. Treasury Department approves the list, the Massachusetts zones remain in place until 2036. The proposal is pending.

Separately, Massachusetts is running other development subsidies: a $330 million One Stop round awarded in October that the state estimates will unlock $24.6 billion in private investment and support more than 27,000 homes, per this publication's reporting.