Northeast Louisiana Opportunity Zones
Opportunity Zone Background
Opportunity Zones (OZs) were created under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to spur long-term investment in low-income urban and rural communities. Qualified OZs offer tax incentives for investors who reinvest capital gains into Opportunity Funds targeting designated areas. OZs have already driven over $100 billion in investment across the country, and OZs have been made a permanent part of the federal tax code.
Grow NELA Can Help You:
- Identify OZ tracts across the 10-parish region
- Assist with site selection and project vetting
- Identify layered incentive strategies (e.g., NMTC, Enterprise Zones)
- Connect you to local, state, and federal partners
How the OZ Program Works
Investors can defer tax on prior capital gains by investing in Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOFs). If the investment is held for at least 10 years, any appreciation is tax-free.
Why Northeast Louisiana?
Northeast Louisiana's designated OZ tracts are strategically located near industrial parks, highways, ports, and other critical assets. From downtown revitalization to infrastructure upgrades, OZs in the region are primed for catalytic projects.
GrowNELA Opportunity Zones
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Census Tract #22035000200
Northeast Louisiana New Market Tax Credits
New Markets Tax Credit Background
The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program is a federal incentive designed to attract private capitol into underserved and economically distressed communities across the United Stoles. Enacted as port of the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000, NMTCs encourage private investors to make equity investments in Community Development Entities (CDEs), which in turn fund projects that creole jobs and improve services in low-income areas.
Northeast Louisiana is home to multiple census tracts that qualify as NMTC-eligible-making it a strategic region for mission-driven developers, manufacturers, healthcare providers, education partners, and mixed-use projects to leverage this powerful incentive.
Grow NELA Can Provide:
- A list of NMTC-eligible census tracts across the region
- Introductions to active CDEs with Louisiana allocations
- Assistance connecting your project with local government and community partners
- Site selection support and layered incentive strategy development
How the NMTC Works
When investors allocate capitol to a qualified CDE, they receive a federal lox credit totaling 39% of the investment, claimed over seven years (5% for the first 3 years, then 6% for the remaining 4 years). This financing tool con be layered with other programs-such as Opportunity Zones, Historic Tax Credits, and State Incentives-to drive transformational development in high-need areas.
Eligible projects include:
• Manufacturing facilities
• Workforce training centers
• Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs)
• Commercial developments
• Mixed-use and downtown revitalization
• Industrial porks and logistics hubs
Why Northeast Louisiana
Across the 10-porish Grow NELA region, there is strong alignment between local leadership,
economic development priorities, and the types of projects NMTCs ore designed to support. Recent large-scale investments, like Meta's $10B Al Data Center, hove elevated the region's visibility, while also increasing demand for workforce housing, community health services, industrial space, and transportation infrastructure.
Many sites in the region fall within NMTC-eligible census tracts, and we ore actively working with partners to match investors and CDEs with catalytic projects.