WASHINGTON – A Company real estate investment co-founded by the son of President Donald Trump Jared Kushner, lawyer and legal adviser, put a lot on the tax breaks made by the administration, but is not interested in the orientation of its investors to the poorest and most oppressed areas that the program seeks to revitalize.

New York-based executive, in which Kushner still holds a passive stake of at least $ 25 million, has clearly indicated to potential investors in recent marketing materials that he was not planning on looking for Development agreements in most of these areas because of their "unfavorable growth prospects". 19659008] Instead, Cadre says he's going to aim for and a "small subset" of areas in cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami, where populations and incomes should already increase faster than the national average.

Framework is a striking example of the interest shown by early investors for the program seems to target the places that need it the least: the areas eligible for tax breaks despite already substantial investments or obvious gentrification.

Examples of such areas include a portion of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. this includes the summit of Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue, where the three-bedroom apartments overlooking Central Park sell for $ 4 million. Ledroit Park, in the nation's capital, is another, most of which comes from the Curbed real estate blog that has anointed Washington's "most mired" postal code.

Another area of ​​Opportunity includes a portion of the Willows neighborhood in Menlo Park, California, less than 2 kilometers from the Stanford campus, where the technology boom has led to an increase in house prices to $ 1,500 per year. square foot, 10 times the national average. The area of ​​opportunity where Amazon has its head office in New York, Queens, has a median household income greater than $ 130,000.

"It's hard to imagine why we should be subsidizing this grant," said Brett Theodos, a researcher whose analysis revealed the Urban Institute. nearly one-third of the country's more than 8,700 opportunity areas show signs of pre-existing heavy investments. "These investors are not bad guys, they react to incentives."

This is the main criticism against the Investment in Opportunities Act, which came into effect last December as part of the Republican-sponsored tax reform. Promoted by Trump at a White House event last week, he offers developers potentially tax relief on multi-million dollar capital gains allowing them to invest in areas selected by the states depending on factors such as extreme poverty and low income.

average poverty rate of 32% in the zones, it covers a wide range of areas – and allows "contiguous" areas that may not have low incomes but are close enough to areas in distress to have law.

Frame said in a statement to The Associated Press estimates that the neighborhoods targeted by the investments could be brought to growth, but would present low median incomes and would be "deprived of capital".

"In the end, the tax advantages of the Opportunity Zone only come to fruition if we succeed for the communities in which we invest," the statement said.

There is no indication that the administration has sought to include richer opportunities in the program. A spokesman for the White House told the PA last week that the choice of areas was the will of states. The Treasury Department, which certified the final list of zones, declined to comment on the presence of gentrified areas in the program.

For some funds, the obvious gentrification of certain areas was an explicit selling point, a much safer bet than putting money in badly disrupted areas.

Anthony Scaramucci, the hedge fund manager who briefly served as director of communications for Trump at the White House, is trying to raise up to $ 3 billion for Opportunity Zone projects. During a marketing call last week, he presented a warehouse project in Savannah, Georgia, and a "posh" hotel project in Oakland, California.

"For those of you who have not yet visited this part of Scaramucci Bay," said Scaramucci

Fundrise, another Opportunity Zone fund that is trying to raise $ 500 million in investment , targets many of the same areas as Cadre, ranking its "targets for investment in the areas of opportunity on which housing costs increase the fastest.

A measure of the extent to which areas overlap with the pre-existing interests of proponents is their degree of overlap with their current holdings. An examination by the AP of Kushner's holdings revealed that he held stakes in 13 buildings in the Opportunity Zone, all in areas considered by the Urban Institute as showing signs of change. fast or total gentrification.

An AP investigation revealed that Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, both helped to lobby for the program and, as a couple, would benefit financially. Even though Kushner has waived any role in managing Cadre, observers in ethics say it's a conflict arising from their decision to become presidential advisors without departing from their considerable investments.

Marcy Hart, a Philadelphia Real Estate Tax Attorney, Advised Her Clients As part of the Opportunity Zone program, she did not see much evidence that the program would redirect investments to countries that lacked them. before.

"Some projects have probably been put online because they are in" Opportunity "areas, I said." But my clients were already investing in these areas. "

Even some of the most Fervent supporters of the program have acknowledged that not all areas of opportunity are also needed.At a gala hosted last month by the Kemp Foundation in the honor of Sean Parker, a venture capitalist from San Francisco who helped create the Opportunity Zone, Parker himself said that these areas included "handy" neighborhoods that already clearly attracted investment.

But the program's incentives are significant enough , he said, after the obvious opportunities have been exhausted, investors will eventually turn to the most disadvantaged regions.

"There will be a lot of capital in the funds of opportunity to find a place to go, "he said.

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