Another Midwest city where the OZ program has yet to take hold is Kansas City, MO. The Kansas City, MO-KS MSA has 13.8% of its commercial assets in Opportunity Zones, above the national average. Investment share in Opportunity Zones has seen a general decrease for many years, with the first quarter of 2019 posting the lowest share of investments in these areas since the turn of the century (5.6%). The Reonomy report notes that Kansas City asset values are a bit more volatile than other markets, but have remained mostly steady.

OZ investment in Minneapolis and St. Louis are seeing some improvement or potential for increased activity. The Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI MSA has 7.9% of its commercial assets in Opportunity Zones, well below the national average. Decreasing investment share in Opportunity Zone qualified tracts slowed just before the enactment of the legislation, and in the first quarter of 2019, saw a very slight increase. Though, as values decreased a bit throughout 2018, the effects of Opportunity Zones remain in question, the Reonomy report notes.

In the Oklahoma City, OK MSA, only 8.1% of commercial properties are located in qualified Opportunity Zones. Although investment share saw a small upward tick in the first quarter of this year within Opportunity Zones, “asset value has remained stagnant in recent quarters in and outside of Opportunity Zones, only slightly depreciating (with April 2017 – March 2018 showing incredibly prominent year-over-year increases),” the report states.

The St. Louis, MO-IL MSA has 12.3% of its commercial assets in Opportunity Zones, slightly above the national average. In terms of investment share within Opportunity Zones, the region has closely followed the national trend in recent years, showing a small but potential positive result of the Opportunity Zone program in the first quarter of this year.