The first thing they teach you about real estate is three little words: location, location, location. Property values are driven by the strength of the location so homeowners know to avoid bad locations. But for state officials, government employees and community development professionals, blighted areas, polluted lots and underdeveloped neighborhoods are not going to get better until someone decides to develop them.
Since 1999, the Keystone Opportunity Zone program has taken these plagued parcels and made them shovel-ready through remediation efforts and land development. And by eliminating specific state and local taxes within these underdeveloped zones, some areas are beating back the blight and becoming communities again. In Dauphin County, the Harrisburg Regional Chamber and Capital Region Economic Development Corporation (CREDC) are working to expand the citys housing market and hoping to draw real estate buyers to underdeveloped areas through various KOZ incentives. Harrisburg officials announced this week that their zone is adding new housing sites and providing updates on their current ones to lure prospective homebuyers.
Some of these opportunities were available January 1 but frankly, we didnt think people were aware of them, says Harrisburg Regional Chamber President and CEO David Black. The idea was to promote living in a KOZ, which hasnt been done a lot throughout the state.
After experiencing great initial success state-wide, new zones were added in 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2009, currently offering PA developers over 46,000 acres of low-tax land in 12 zones. After a press conference this week announcing new incentives and new sites available, the City of Harrisburg will be adding 9 acres within 151 parcels, and the Borough of Steelton will add 161 acres in 6 parcels. Harrisburgs development team has called on their first KOZ homeowner, Tania Hockenberry, to help lead the charge. Hockenberry has said publicly that she would not be able to afford her current home if not for KOZ incentives.
One of the criteria is blighted areas and our KOZ certainly would qualify as blighted so it is a more challenging part of town but thats why the benefit of the tax-free zone is there, says Black. We are doing some local marketing and, on the more commercial properties in midtown Harrisburg, we will probably alert some local publications, do some social media to let people know these sites are available so that people can find out more information about them.
Source: David Black, Harrisburg Regional Chamber and CREDC
Writer: John Steele