The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was enacted in 1977 and charged federal bank regulators with the task of monitoring the banking industry’s lending practices and community development investments in low- and moderate-income communities. The CRA was created to address banking industry practices k … Read more

Begun in 1982, the Small Business and Innovation Research (SBIR) grant program provides funding to small businesses throughout the country. The purpose of the program is to leverage the innovation capacity of small businesses and encourage the commercialization of private sector research and develop … Read more

In the previous post of this two-part series, we discussed how a purchase agreement with an extended due diligence period could be used to obtain site control of properties with redevelopment potential. We also discussed the specific negotiable terms of assignability, due diligence, earnest money, a … Read more

In April 2018, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) officially rebranded their Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program to Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD). Begun in 2009, the TIGER program has provided transportation improvement … Read more

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal department primarily responsible for setting national food, farm, and nutrition policies across the country.  In addition to management of national food systems, the USDA has played an important role in rural economic development. Man … Read more

Local governments in North Carolina that seek to shape or spur downtown development must often gain site control of properties that have strong redevelopment potential. Frequently, a site with strong potential is privately owned, and a savvy local government will first need to obtain site control be … Read more

Opportunity Zones are the latest effort by the federal government to encourage investment in low-income census tracts. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, enacted at the end of 2017, grants significant tax benefits to investors who reinvest their capital gains in designated “Opportunity Zones.” The market po … Read more

The Opportunity Zone (OZ) program was rolled out this year, creating a new community economic development tool. Prior posts on the CED blog have covered this topic — an overview of OZs can be found here and a discussion of North Carolina’s selection of zones here. This post will discuss how OZs rel … Read more

The Opportunity Zone (OZ) program was created as a part of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.  An overview of the program previously posted on the CED blog can be found here. On May 18, 2018 the US Secretary of Treasury certified 252 census tracts in North Carolina as OZs.  The designation o … Read more

Municipalities across North Carolina have long employed code enforcement tools to address problem properties and abandoned structures. A prior blog post describes the code enforcement options for repair and maintenance of commercial buildings. A book on housing codes describes the code enforcement o … Read more