“The ethos of this program is to push down decision-making to the local level,” said Glickman, who now runs a consulting firm for investors in the zones.
Still, the old list of sin businesses is raising new questions at a time when taboos around drugs and sex are changing.
Campus for Cannabis
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said that businesses selling marijuana shouldn’t qualify for the incentives. But Canna-Hub, which builds facilities for California’s booming pot industry, intends to use the perk to burnish returns on a new 80-acre campus near Williams, California. The property will include buildings designed for indoor cultivators, testing facilities and edibles manufacturers.
The company began pursuing the $200 million project before opportunity zones were tucked into Trump’s tax overhaul. The site, about 50 miles north of Sacramento, happened to be in a census tract that state authorities later selected as a zone. Canna-Hub is confident it can work within more detailed rules since released by the Internal Revenue Service.
It’s only fair that they qualify, CEO Tim McGraw said. Unlike liquor, he said, cannabis has medicinal properties, relieving anxiety and pain. “If they were going to leave cannabis out of opportunity zones, they’d have to leave out Tylenol,” he said.
While country clubs are out, a wide array of other luxury developments is chasing the break. In Houston, developers are erecting a high-end residential tower featuring a “sky amenity deck” on the 46th floor. It also offers yoga lawns, shaded cabanas and barbecue grills around a swimming pool overlooking the downtown area. Others intend to use the tax perk for a new mall in Connecticut anchored by a Bloomingdale’s and a Nordstrom.
To be sure, the majority of projects slated for opportunity zones are relatively straightforward real estate developments, such as industrial parks and apartment buildings. Some investors are also voluntarily avoiding projects that create environmental or social concerns.
Haddock got the idea for her company, Lora DiCarlo, after an intensely pleasurable sexual experience when she was in her late 20s. “I thought, ‘How do I do this again?’” she recalled in an interview. Her answer was Osé, an elongated personal massager that uses micro-robotics to make what the company calls a “come hither” motion. It’s expected to go on sale for roughly $300 this fall.
Developed with technical help from researchers at Oregon State University, the device won an award from the group behind the Consumer Electronics Show. When the organizer later withdrew the honor, Haddock went public with the story, saying it demonstrated bias. The prize was later reinstated.
That publicity, paired with Haddock’s mission of promoting gender equality, has made her startup an easy sell to investors, said Doug Layman, an Oregon-based angel investor who took a stake in the company. An email address set up to attract potential backers drew interest from billionaires, and she quickly raised more than $3 million. “Really, she had her pick,” Layman said.