Ohio has received federal approval for 260 Opportunity Zones designed to attract private investment in housing, business development and economic revitalization projects across the state.
Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik announced that the U.S. Department of the Treasury approved all 260 census tracts nominated by the state under the federal Opportunity Zones 2.0 program.
The new designations take effect Jan. 1, and will remain in place through 2036.
The program provides federal tax incentives to encourage private investment in economically distressed communities, with potential applications including housing construction, commercial redevelopment, business expansion and job creation.
Of the 260 approved census tracts, 96 are located in rural communities, reflecting an effort to extend investment opportunities beyond Ohio’s largest metropolitan areas.
The designations include 78 census tracts that participated in the state’s original Opportunity Zones program, while the remaining 182 represent newly designated areas.
Ohio’s first Opportunity Zones were established in 2018, when 320 census tracts across 73 counties received federal designations.
The program was originally created under federal tax legislation enacted in 2017 to encourage long-term private investment in qualifying low-income communities.
Congress established a permanent Opportunity Zones framework in 2025, requiring states to redesignate eligible census tracts every 10 years.
Under the new framework, investors can qualify for federal tax benefits by directing eligible capital gains into designated Opportunity Zones through qualified investment funds.
The Ohio Department of Development conducted a statewide nomination process to identify communities for the latest designations.
The department received 951 nominations representing 515 of the state’s 1,040 eligible census tracts. All counties containing at least one eligible tract submitted a nomination.
State officials ultimately selected 260 tracts for federal consideration, and the Treasury Department approved the entire list.
The largest number of designations went to Ohio’s major metropolitan counties.
Cuyahoga County received 39 designated tracts, followed by Franklin County with 28, Hamilton County with 19, Lucas County with 16 and Montgomery County with 13.
Other counties receiving multiple designations include Summit with nine; Butler and Mahoning with seven each; Ashtabula and Stark with six each; and Allen, Lorain and Trumbull with five each.
Smaller and rural counties also received designations, including Adams, Carroll, Gallia, Guernsey, Harrison, Hocking, Morgan, Noble, Perry, Pike, Vinton and Washington counties.
The approved areas are intended to encourage investment in communities where economic conditions can make traditional private financing more difficult to secure.
Opportunity Zone tax incentives are designed to attract private capital, but the designations do not provide direct federal grants to local governments or guarantee that development projects will occur.
Local governments, developers, businesses and investors can use the designations when planning qualifying investments beginning in 2027.
Photo by Stephen Leonardi from Pexels
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