I Was Thinking... What Do We Do With an Opportunity?

I was thinking about how easy it is to wait for rescue. Wait for the grant, the program, the funding, somebody somewhere to show up with an answer. And when the rescue doesn’t come, sometimes we sit, we wait, we retreat.

How did I get into this rabbit hole? Since we’re going to spend some time together in this space, you should probably know this is how my mind works. One question tends to lead to another, and occasionally we end up pretty far down the rabbit hole.

This particular trip started during a larger presentation on economic development when the conversation turned to OZ 2.0. I had been educated on the subject previously, so instead of watching the presentation, I found myself watching the other faces in the room. A few of them glazed over.

OZ 2.0?

I started wondering why nobody asked the obvious questions. What the heck is an OZ? What happened to 1.0? What are we getting with 2.0?

So, enjoy your coffee. Here’s the short version.

OZ stands for Opportunity Zone. It’s a federal program designed to encourage private investment in certain communities by giving investors a pretty compelling reason to put their money there: reducing, deferring and, in some circumstances, eliminating capital gains taxes, everybody’s favorite pastime.

Jefferson County has been awarded two Opportunity Zones under the new OZ 2.0 program. One includes portions of Port Townsend, including the waterfront and boatyard area. The other covers Brinnon and much of western Jefferson County.

The important word, I think, is investment. This isn’t a grant. There isn’t a pot of federal money headed our way. The government has created an incentive for private capital to come here. What happens after that is largely up to us.

That got me thinking about something we should probably remember.

We’ve done this before.

Jefferson County had Opportunity Zones under the original program, with even more geographic coverage than we’ll have this time. Port Hadlock and Irondale were included. Yet, for whatever combination of reasons, we largely let that opportunity pass us by.

I don’t say that to assign blame. Maybe we didn’t understand the tool well enough. Maybe the right projects weren’t ready. Maybe investors didn’t know what was here.

I don’t know.

But OZ 1.0 left us with a useful lesson: being designated an Opportunity Zone doesn’t actually do much by itself. People still have to do something with it.

That thought led me to Port Hadlock.

There was considerable interest in having Port Hadlock-Irondale included again, which seems logical. With the new sewer system and an Urban Growth Area intended to accommodate growth, isn’t Port Hadlock exactly the kind of place where we would want to encourage housing, businesses, and investment?

So why Port Townsend and not Port Hadlock?

The answer is one of those oddities that reminds me how differently government maps and community maps can look. The census tract containing the Port Hadlock Urban Growth Area also includes Marrowstone Island. Under the tighter income requirements for OZ 2.0, the combined demographics put the tract above the federal eligibility threshold.

There’s some irony in that. After decades of talking about sewer and the growth it could support, Port Hadlock finally has the infrastructure but doesn’t qualify for this particular investment tool.

Port Townsend does.

And somewhere along the way, my question changed.

I stopped wondering so much about why one place qualified and another didn’t and started wondering what we’re actually going to do with the opportunity we have.

Maybe there’s a property owner who has been thinking about doing something with a building. Maybe there’s a local business that could grow with the right investment. Maybe there’s a housing project that almost works financially but doesn’t quite pencil. Maybe there’s an entrepreneur with an idea looking for a place and an investor looking for an idea.

None of those things automatically find each other because somebody drew an Opportunity Zone on a map.

Somebody has to connect the dots.

And maybe that’s another thing worth thinking about. We tend to talk about economic development as though somebody else does it. The government does it. The EDC does it. Developers do it.

Maybe it’s simpler than that.

Maybe economic development happens when somebody sees a possibility and enough people help connect the pieces to make it real.

Which brings me back to where I started.

Maybe that’s the difference between rescue and opportunity. Rescue arrives with the answer. Opportunity doesn’t.

Sometimes it just opens a door.

We had one open before, and for whatever reason, we didn’t really walk through it. OZ 2.0 has opened another.

I was thinking maybe the question this time isn’t what’s on the other side.

Maybe it’s whether we’re curious enough to walk through and find out.