Don't Expect An Opportunity Zone Renaissance During The Crisis

BisNow

By Dees Stribling

April 19, 2020

The entire U.S. economy is on pause, and with it the opportunity zone investment program. For a program with a slow and sometimes rocky start, it isn't hard to imagine a slower and even rockier time ahead during the post-pandemic recovery. Yet it is also possible that in the longer run, opportunity zones will be recognized as a key tool of the recovery by the federal government, local jurisdictions and investors alike, OZ experts say.

Created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the opportunity zone program allows investors to forgo capital gains taxes on long-term real estate or business investments in about 8,800 distressed areas nationwide. The final regulations were published by the IRS in December. As of early March, there were a total of 210 Opportunity Zone Funds with $47.6B of total anticipated investment, according to the National Council of State Housing Agencies. The majority of those are real estate-related, with 63% of the funds targeting investment in affordable housing projects. "In the short term, there's no question that the [coronavirus] crisis is a negative for [the] program," CalOZ President Kunal Merchant said. "There's been a chilling effect on investment because of the new uncertainty. Existing projects in opportunity zones are taking longer to get funded and new projects are being delayed." 

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Widow of Black Panther founder Huey Newton fights for monument in West Oakland

San Francisco Chronicle

By Otis R. Taylor Jr.

February 20, 2020

Every week or so, Fredrika Newton receives a flyer with an offer to buy her home.

Newton, widow of Huey P. Newton, a co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, lives in West Oakland.

She sees a connection between the Black Panthers’ fight for social justice for African Americans in the late 1960s and the battle she and her neighbors face just to stay in West Oakland, where home prices are skyrocketing and wealthy buyers are moving in.

Founded in the city in 1966, the Black Panthers are remembered for wearing black leather jackets and black berets while patrolling West Oakland streets armed with rifles and pistols.

In 1969, the group began feeding children at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on 29th Street before school. By the end of the year, they were feeding 20,000 kids in 19 U.S. cities in what would later become the blueprint for the federal government’s school breakfast program.

That’s a nugget of black history to chew on.

Oakland’s history is inextricably linked to the Black Panthers, but you wouldn’t know it if you recently moved here. There are no commemorative plaques or statues.

“Nothing to show the breakfast programs, nothing to show the free food giveaway, nothing to show the presence,” Newton said.

Newton, president of the Huey P. Newton Foundation, is on a quest to erect a monument to the Black Panthers and, eventually, a Black Panther museum. Think about it: Here we are near the end of another Black History Month and there’s little in Oakland to mark the compelling and complex legacy of the Black Panther Party.

Here’s more food for thought. A half century ago, West Oakland was a low-income, black neighborhood populated by families who migrated to California to work in the bustling wartime shipyards. West Oakland was one of the few areas blacks could live because of redlining, the systemic and discriminatory practice of refusing to issue them loans in certain neighborhoods.

Redlining enforced neighborhood segregation, and the practice crippled black neighborhoods by denying crucial investment dollars needed to purchase property and develop neighborhood resources.

The Black Panthers are known for fighting police brutality and racial inequality, but they also fought against the destabilization of the black community.

The organization was confrontational in the early years when members openly carried firearms legally. It led to violent clashes and the death of Oakland police officer John Frey — Huey Newton, who was also shot in the incident, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the case but the verdict was reversed on appeal and the charges eventually were dropped.

But when the Black Panthers put down their weapons, the organization focused on education, health care and self-reliance.

Long neglected, West Oakland today is where the hot property is — at prices inaccessible to many of the neighborhood’s longtime residents. And for the folks who own their homes like Newton, they just have to open their mailboxes for offers to leave so they can make room for someone else.

“We’re looked upon as strangers in our own community,” Newton said. “It’s like people are moving into the neighborhood and not even being neighborly. So the people that have lived there all their lives are treated as though they don’t even belong in their own neighborhoods.”

I met Newton last weekend at the de Young Museum, where she appeared to discuss the cultural resonance of her late husband. The talk coincided with “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power,” an exhibition that unflinchingly approaches racial turbulence in this country.

Newton, who was born in Oakland, spent part of her childhood on Bateman Street, a short block in Berkeley. Her mother was a white, Jewish activist and her father a black musician. Their neighbors included Tom Hayden, an anti-war and civil rights activist who later became a politician, and Robert Scheer, the former editor of Ramparts, a political and literary magazine. Jane Fonda would host political education classes on the block. Newton’s mother introduced her to Huey Newton.

About five years ago Newton, a retired addiction nurse, took on a more active role in the foundation she co-founded in 1995 with David Hilliard, former chief of staff for the Black Panthers. She envisions a monument near Lake Merritt, and a traveling exhibition of Black Panther archives. The foundation is raising money for the monument.

We talked about the tension in Oakland caused by housing insecurity that was punctuated when a group of mothers moved into a house in West Oakland without the owner’s permission. Moms 4 Housing was protesting the companies they see as profiting from the displacement of people in black and brown neighborhoods.

Oakland pridefully thumps its chest when celebrating the city’s culture, but what happens when the people who create and embody the culture can’t afford to live in Oakland?

“That’s why it’s so important that the histories of the people of the community are known,” Newton, 68, said.

Damien McDuffie, a West Oakland native, has been working with Newton since June. Growing up in the Acorn Projects in the 1990s, McDuffie, the foundation’s director of brand strategies and archives, told me that he knew the Black Panthers were from West Oakland. But that’s it.

He sees the foundation’s work as an opportunity to preserve the richness of Oakland’s impact on black history.

“What kind of environment is West Oakland and Oakland in general that creates a space where the Black Panther Party is needed and can exist?” he said. “How could West Oakland be a place that produces an organization that has such a rippling impact across the world and then also be the place that I lived?”

That’s history that can’t be forced out of a neighborhood.

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New Nashville soccer stadium is a go: MLS club, mayor agree on revised deal

MLS

By Simon Borg

February 13, 2020

The new soccer stadium in Nashville is officially a go.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper and Nashville SC lead owner John Ingram announced they've reached agreement on a revised deal and the demolition process is set to begin immediately.

“We are very happy to be moving forward with the stadium construction,” Ingram said in a joint statement. “The investment we are making is not just for our soccer team, it is an investment in the future of Nashville and the Fairgrounds.”

Under terms of the amended agreement, the MLS club agrees to privately fund 100 percent of stadium construction through cash investment, stadium lease payments, and revenues generated at the stadium by attendees of events held at the facility. The revised deal eliminates taxpayer and budget burden for stadium construction while keeping in place the first community benefits agreement in Tennessee.

Nashville SC will fund the infrastructure in the immediate vicinity of the stadium estimated to be $19 million, while also assuming Nashville Metro's obligation to pay up to $35 million toward lease payments.

“I’m so glad we’ve reached a better deal for Nashville," Mayor Cooper said. "I’m grateful to Nashville Soccer Holdings and John Ingram for understanding our city’s financial realities and agreeing to pay up to $54 million in additional costs. This deal saves the taxpayers money and provides a better site plan for the Fairgrounds. Today is an exciting step forward for sports in Nashville and I’m ready for the first Nashville SC game on February 29th.”

Nashville SC open their inaugural season in MLS with a nationally televised Week 1 match against Atlanta United on Saturday, February 29 (8 pm ET on FOX). The club will play its first two MLS seasons at Nissan Stadium before moving into their new home.

Due to high demand for the inaugural match with over 30,000 ticket sold, the club announced it will be opening up additional seating at Nissan Stadium.

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RevOZ Capital Appoints Nine Industry Experts To Its Board Of Advisors

Yahoo! Finance

February 12, 2020

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Feb. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RevOZ Capital ("RevOZ"), a leading real estate investment firm specializing in Opportunity Zones, today announced the formation of its board of advisors responsible for providing strategic counsel to the principals of RevOZ as they scale their Opportunity Zone-specific investment platform. The nine board members represent a diverse and highly engaged group of experts who boast premier experience across commercial real estate (CRE), corporate finance, education, Opportunity Zone policy, government and legal industries.

“The CRE industry is awaiting evidence of the measurable economic impact that the Opportunity Zone incentive was designed to ignite,” said Alex Bhathal, managing partner and founder, RevOZ Capital. “RevOZ Capital is delivering proof of concept with successful Opportunity Zone projects in California and Oregon in 2019 and more to be announced soon.”

Bhathal continued, “With the appointment of this seasoned group of board members, we are now collaborating with a highly experienced brain trust whose insights and counsel will propel us into the next stage of growth, enabling RevOZ to help champion a future where underserved communities are revitalized while meeting the return objectives of our investors.”

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Oakland Council Votes For Easier Path To Build A's Stadium

KCBS 7

January 22, 2020

The Oakland A's pitch for a waterfront ballpark became closer to reality after the city council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve an agreement with the port that allows the release of the project's environmental review

This arrangement means that there could be just one more vote by the city council before construction begins at Howard Terminal.

Dava Kaval, the team's president, tweeted that the vote had passed. 

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With the passing of David Stern, we lost a leader who saved the Kings for Sacramento

The Sacramento Bee

January 1, 2020

By Marcos Bretón

We would have no NBA basketball in Sacramento and the Kings would be a relic of the past without the power and influence of David Stern, the former NBA commissioner who died Wednesday after initially suffering a brain hemorrhage in New York on Dec. 12.

Stern was 77 and his loss is mourned deeply and widely because the diminutive, bespectacled lawyer-turned-commissioner is credited with elevating the NBA from a niche league to a global sensation over his 30 years at the helm, between 1984 and 2014. 

Sacramento benefited immeasurably from Stern’s support when he expertly deployed his formidable levers of authority to rebuff efforts to move the Kings to Orange County and Seattle. That bought Sacramento leaders enough time to recruit a new ownership group that would give NBA owners the option of keeping the Kings in the state capital, which Stern clearly wanted to do.

This years-long effort resulted in the construction of Golden 1 Center, home of the Kings, and the DOCO entertainment and shopping complex around G1C. These are now tangible symbols of Stern’s expansive vision for the NBA and of Sacramento’s thriving new downtown.

“Sacramento will owe David Stern a deep debt of gratitude for generations to come,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg.

“Without his willingness to step out and believe in us, our city would be missing a major piece of its ongoing resurgence. Thank you does not begin to express what David Stern has meant to our city.”

Today, there is a street outside Golden 1 Center bearing Stern’s name. That is the address of the arena, 500 David J. Stern Walk.

And throughout the world of sports and business, Stern was known as one of the most effective leaders of a major American brand in the last half-century.

“Commissioner Stern defined the gold standard of being a sports commissioner,” said Kunal Merchant, who was chief of staff to former Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson during the years when Johnson led the local effort to save the Kings.

“(Stern) understood the full magnitude of what sports could be in society, in entertainment, in real estate, in technology, in international relations, in philanthropy,” he said. “He was a person who was not (tall) and whose life intersected with human beings who were 6-feet-6 or taller, and yet he was a towering figure in whatever room he walked into.”

CREATES MODERN NBA

When Stern took over the NBA, its premier games – the NBA Finals – were still aired on tape-delay. That meant championship games were sometimes shown on TV hours after the final buzzer had sounded because the TV networks thought they were a drag on prime time programming. By the time Stern retired in 2014, the NBA had surpassed baseball and rivaled the NFL in ratings power and billions in revenues earned.

“The league’s annual revenue from its television contract increased by 40 times,“ ESPN wrote last week. “The average player salary jumped from $250,000 a year in 1984 to more than $5 million, and the value of franchises skyrocketed.”

Stern accomplished this by always being the smartest guy in the room. He celebrated star players and exciting rivalries. He understood contracts, marketing, real estate and power better than anyone who crossed his path and arguably better than any commissioner of any sport.

Stern’s huge personality belied his modest stature. He was raised in New Jersey and Stern seemed to relish unleashing his inner Jersey and powerful intellect on friends and foes alike. When you were in his presence, you were in the company of a formidable combination of wit and cunning that intimidated as much as it charmed. 

Stern loved to mix it up with anyone and, above all else, this was a man who knew who he was and woe to the fool who underestimated him.

“He is the only person I ever met who could exhibit extraordinary compassion and ruthlessness in the same sentence,” Merchant said.

Because Stern made so much money for players and owners, he locked down their respect and obedience. The NBA is a democracy wrapped in a monopoly with NBA owners as partners. The commissioner represents them. Stern played that role like a fine instrument but his voice and vote always counted most because of who he was and what he did to elevate the league.

SACRAMENTO GETS, KEEPS KINGS

As a consequence of his unquestioned power, Sacramento got an NBA team in 1985 and kept it in early 2010s when the Maloof brothers, the former Kings owners, sought to relocate to Orange County and then Seattle. Stern was with Sacramento every step of the way. He was on hand at the first Arco Arena when the Kings played their inaugural game. And he was the most powerful player in the decade-long saga of keeping the Kings from leaving.

“David (was) consistently our greatest fan and supporter of Sacramento,” said Gregg Lukenbill, who brought the Kings to Sacramento and led the first local ownership group. “His support is unique in NBA history. He was our original sixth man for 35 years, privately supporting us in a (then) 23-league team in a temporary 10,000 seat building.”

The Maloofs first wanted to move the team in 2011. Stern persuaded them to give the Kings another year. 

The relationship between the Maloofs and Sacramento soured greatly at this point and a certain newspaper columnist – well, me – was really letting them have it in The Bee. That made me persona non grata with all the Kings’ horses and all the Kings’ men. You have not lived until Grant Napear, voice of the Kings, is routinely fire-breathing your name into his 50,000-watt microphone with every Long Island fiber of his being. I loved it. 

Then one afternoon, my phone rang, I picked it up and immediately recognized the deep and biting New York accent on the other line. All he said was, “This is David Stern,” and all I could muster was – gulp!

Stern started out scolding me, which was unnerving to say the least. But he listened as well. I told him that Sacramento didn’t want to lose the Kings. It was an ownership issue, not a market issue. Many others told him the same and though he never revealed what he was thinking, Stern kept returning to Sacramento to find a solution to the Kings ownership crisis.

Orange County materialized in 2011 as a Kings destination and Stern led the NBA’s rejection of that plan. Seattle became a real contender for the Kings and Stern spelled out for Johnson what Sacramento needed to do to stay in the game.

Namely, Sacramento needed to prove it had corporate support – which Johnson secured. The locals needed to find a funding mechanism to build an arena, which they did. They needed to prove to NBA owners that a new arena would not be bogged down in lawsuits, which Steinberg delivered by crafting legislation that effectively blocked nuisance suits while he was the leader of the State Senate.

In time, Vivek Randadive materialized as the leader of a new ownership group for the Kings. And once that was secured, Stern had the votes to keep the Kings in Sacramento.

“He believed it was in the best interests of the NBA to stay in Sacramento because this market proved it loved this game,” Merchant said. “He believed Sacramento had the ability to build an arena if it has the right ownership group.”

Said Lukenbill: “He personally stood firmly against threatened and attempted franchise moves from here. I asked him why and he sincerely stated that our fans deserved his wholehearted support. Simply put, he loves Sacramento.”

Stern kept a low profile after his retirement. The last time I saw him was in 2015, at the screening of a subsequently shelved ESPN film about Sacramento’s effort to keep the Kings. He had let his hair grow longer and I remember him seeming frailer than I had ever seen him.

At the end of the screening, he eschewed the after-party and wanted to head home with his wife. We watched him walking gingerly to his vehicle, seeming a little bit lost and vulnerable in the hustle and bustle of a Friday night in Manhattan. To his everlasting credit, Merchant raced out after him and led the Sterns to their waiting car. They got in and I never saw him again.

My regret is that I never thanked David Stern for what he did for my city. Some people are called giants, but he really was one in the truest sense of the phrase. Commissioner Stern was also one of the most unforgettable figures any of us will ever meet.

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