St. Petersburg is experiencing record in-migration —both residential and commercial. In 2021 alone, 94 new business put down roots in the city, notably, relocators ARK Investments, Madison Cloud, RabbitRun Technologies, CodeBoxx, and CrossBorder Solutions.

“St. Petersburg issued a record number of permits during the last fiscal year. I think construction-wise, we're probably going to be on track to close to being $1 billion again." said Don Tyre, St. Petersburg Building Official.

Development growth into the area has skyrocketed in both residential and commercial. The 86-acre master-planned Tropicana Field redevelopment site, alone, is estimated to total $5.2 billion over the next 20 years.

The Opportunity Zones incentive is a new community investment tool established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, with the purpose of encouraging long-term investments in low-income urban and rural communities nationwide.

The benefit is two-fold: fueling economic renewal in economically distressed communities; and creating attractive tax incentives for investors.

Leveraging Opportunity Zones allows investors with capital gains to take advantage of a tax deferral and partial exclusion on the reinvested gains. Under the Act, if the investment is held for at least 10 years, the appreciation on the investment in a Qualified Opportunity Zone is not subject to Federal income tax.