What attracts Opportunity Zone capital to a Texas town

The final session of the 2026 TEDC and CDFA webinar series, “Understanding Opportunity Zones.” Anne Bovaird Nevins of Accelerator for America covered the basics. Frances Kern Mennone and Jason Villalba of FBT Gibbons covered the Texas list and the legal toolkit. I took the investor and developer seat. Miranda Rike of CDFA moderated. The audience was economic development directors from small and mid-sized Texas towns.

What I told them:

• The legislation is good. The job now is local: zoning, infrastructure and a bullhorn.
• Capital goes where a deal is ready. A site for sale today, utilities in the ground, a council member who will pick up the phone.
• Ask whether your ten most active developers can spell OZ. If not, host the lunch.
• OZ investors aren’t the only patient money. Banks with Community Reinvestment Act goals will sit next to them.
• I walked through three Texas projects, in Dallas, Paris and San Antonio. None of them happens but for the program.