Investors who want to take risks on projects in economically distressed parts of Kentucky have new opportunities under a federally sanctioned economic development initiative.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has certified 144 "opportunity zones" in 84 Kentucky counties as part of a larger effort to identify opportunity zones across the U.S. In these zones, investors can benefit financially from what the state calls patient capital investment in low-income areas in urban and rural parts of the state.
The Kentucky Opportunity Zone Initiative will be managed statewide by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, and the state has launched a website that has more information about the program, including maps of the individual opportunity zones and information about current corporate investments.
Locally, opportunity zones have been certified in West Louisville, primarily the Portland neighborhood, and a sliver of north central Bullitt County that extends to the Jefferson County border.
Many of Kentucky's opportunity zones are focused in eastern parts of the state, though there are opportunity zones in the western, northern and central parts of the state as well.
