Check out my discussion - Capital is Just a Tool - with Eve Picker on her new Impact Investing in Real Estate podcast.
Opportunity Zones & Impact
I had an interesting discussion this week about Opportunity Zones and the challenges many communities have simply due to the compressed timing the legislation imposes. There are so many places where a given community hasn’t really thought about what they want and are just getting started, where the local skill and capacity is limited, technical assistance is needed, investors are reluctant to take a risk and there are few shovel ready projects that have already made it through community engagement.
Navigating the Land of OZ: Understanding Opportunity Zones and Opportunity Funds
The Messy Complexity of Life
I’ve found that buildings and communities are deceptively complex. In their simplest form, buildings provide us with shelter and enable us to work productively. Communities link us together and provide the necessities of a civilized society - roads and schools, safety and security, systems of communication and infrastructure - energy, water and waste disposal,. But, beyond that they are also an eco-system that reflects the culture and values of the people that live, work and play within them. A unique matrix of individual parts that when put together in a thoughtful and intentional way create harmony and enable each of us to bring our best selves to the mix. Buildings play an important role in how easily and effectively we can do that. And the recognition of how people interact with each other is key to creating a resilient and vibrant community.
The best projects are ones in which we make the conscious choice to be mindful and think holistically and systemically about the solutions. The trans-disciplinary nature of the team and partnering with the community brings forth solutions that may not be obvious or expected, but in the end are more meaningful and durable. By sharing roles and crossing disciplines we learn from and challenge each other, ultimately pooling and integrating a wealth of expertise. Today’s world requires a vastly different analysis - one that looks at the total value of resiliency, sustainability and high performance. It includes the full range of economic, social and environmental impacts. Decisions around sustainability need to quickly move beyond neat rows of check boxes (and simple payback) to the messy complexity of real life.
There exists a quantifiable and integrated suite of payoffs at the property level that accrue to the owner and occupants, as well as at enterprise and community levels. Successful adaptation and change happens when we are able to articulate the benefits in the context of this complexity and make this the primary source of inspiration and the lever for action versus falling into the trap of easy black and white answers."