Demystifying Opportunity Zones: Success Stories From The Field

An AIALA Advocacy Roundtable:
Demystifying Opportunity Zones: Success Stories From The Field

Opportunity Zones were part of the Tax and Jobs Act signed into law with bi-partisan support in December 2017. Since then, many stakeholders have debated the tool’s effectiveness in producing the intended results. This session is intended as a discussion forum for participants to learn about the tool and its effectiveness in the Southern California market.  This session will also serve as a forum for the AEC community to share their concerns and recommendations for how to improve the OZ program with criteria to ensure more equitable outcomes.

Panelists Include State and Federal Government agencies as well as private-sector real estate experts.

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PANELISTS:

Stacy Cumberbatch – Managing Director, Blended Impact Labs and Founder, Opportunity Riverside
Clair Whitmer – Coordinator, Special Projects, Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, City of Fresno
Gil Keinan – Managing Director, Local Equity
Trelynd Bradley – Senior Business Development Specialist, Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (Go – Biz)
Erich Yost – Senior Management Analyst – Opportunity Zones and LA Promise Zones, Partnership for Public Service Senior Fellow, US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Kishani De Silva – Executive Advisor, LA County Development Authority & Founder, Arts, Architecture and Design Management Services (2A + D)(moderator)

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Stacy Cumberbatch – Managing Director, Blended Impact Labs and Founder, Opportunity Riverside

Stacy Cumberbatch is the Managing Director of Blended Impact Labs, a venture development firm and innovation lab focused on public-private partnerships to power the future of how we invest, earn, and live. She works within the venture capital community alongside public officials and philanthropy to create more inclusive models to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development. In 2019-2020 she served as a FUSE Executive Fellow, leading the Opportunity Zone strategic plan and ecosystem development for the County of Riverside, California in partnership with the Riverside County Business and Community Services department. She is the Founder of Opportunity Riverside, a place-based initiative to increase investments and economic development in the Inland Empire, CA, particularly within its Opportunity Zones.

Stacy holds a Masters of Science from the University of Southern California in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and a Bachelors of Business Administration from the University of Georgia in Finance.

Clair Whitmer – Coordinator, Special Projects, Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, City of Fresno

Clair Whitmer is FUSE Corps. Executive Fellow mid-way through a two-year fellowship in economic development for the City of Fresno. Her projects at the City focus on developing frameworks for inclusive economic development including development in Opportunity Zones and support for entrepreneurship. Clair comes form the Bay Area where she built a proven 20+ year record as a strategy and operations leader at startups, mission-driven brands and non-profits. Most recently, she spearheaded the launch of a professional development & learning platform for “makers” as the head of consumer experience at Maker Media, producer of Maker Faire. She also is CEO of UpBay Express, a logistics firm she operates with her husband; they have 64+ employees and growing. Clair graduated summa cum laude from San Francisco State University with a BA in political science. She has dual nationality in France and the US.

Gil Keinan – Managing Director, Local Equity

Gil works on Opportunity Zone development & is a real estate development, finance, and management professional. His background covers expertise working with local government and developers to create successful Public-Private projects as well as hotel real estate investment. His hands-on operational insights, and verified track record of value creation, allowed him to lead complicated debt, Private Equity, and REIT deals to successful exits. In total, Gil provided leadership to over $2 billion in asset management and over $1 billion in transaction volume.
Gil is a candidate for the Doctor of Business degree, expected to graduate in 2021, holds an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco, and is a graduate of the University of Surrey’s (United Kingdom) School of Hospitality Management. He is a sought-after thought leader and speaker with multiple non-profits and is a member of the National Real Estate Investor association and the Hospitality Asset Managers Association.

Trelynd Bradley – Senior Business Development Specialist & Opportunity Zones, Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (Go – Biz)

Trelynd Bradley serves as a Senior Business Development Specialist in the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), located in Los Angeles. Tre currently administers GO-Biz’s work with respect to Opportunity Zones, Promise Zones, and local economic development liaison services. Tre additionally provides tailored, no-cost consultation to businesses, employers, and site location consultants looking to expand and grow in California. Before GO-Biz, Tre was the appointed Policy Analyst and Executive Fellow for Governor Brown’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) where he managed several projects leading up to the Global Climate Action Summit – including the publishing of the Fourth Edition of the California Solar Guidebook. Prior to joining the State, Tre managed a small business in retail fireworks, facilitated casework for the Office of U.S. Representative Raul Ruiz, and served two airport CEOs under both Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and the Ontario International Airport Authority (OIAA).

Tre holds a bachelor degree in Business Economics and Political Science from the University of California, Riverside and a graduate certificate in Applied Policy and Government from California State University, Sacramento.

Erich Yost – Senior Management Analyst – Opportunity Zones and LA Promise Zones, Partnership for Public Service Senior Fellow, US Department of Housing and Urban Development

Erich Yost is a Management Analyst (Community Initiatives) with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Office of Field Policy and Management in the HUD Los Angeles Field Office. He is an urban entrepreneur with expertise in place-based initiatives and urban revitalization building public-private collaborations and partnerships. Mr. Yost leads White House and HUD Secretarial initiatives including Promise Zones, Opportunity Zones, Choice Neighborhoods, and ConnectHomeUSA. Mr. Yost is a national expert on Opportunity Zones having co-authored the two White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council Reports (One Year Report and the Best Practices Report) delivered to the President and two HUD Opportunity Zone Toolkits. Prior to his current role at HUD Erich was a Supervisory Project Manager for HUD’s Los Angeles Multifamily Development team where he developed HUD’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit Pilot (LIHTC) program. Erich received his undergraduate degree in Economics/Business from UCLA and received a MBA from the University of California, Irvine Paul Merage School of Business. Mr. Yost previously was an entrepreneur and worked as Director of Investment Management at Edison Capital and has held various positions at Wells Fargo Bank, First Interstate Bank, and Cushman & Wakefield. Mr. Yost is a Partnership for Public Service Excellence in Government Senior Fellow.

Kishani De Silva – Executive Advisor, LA County Development Authority & Founder, Arts, Architecture and Design Management Services (2A + D)

Kishani is a FUSE Executive Advisor working with the executive office of the Los Angeles County Development Authority. She has worked in the architecture and design industries for over twenty years in the project and program management arenas, both in the U.S. and the U.K. Prior to her appointment with the LACDA, she worked as a management consultant, which followed her time at Foster + Partners in London. Her work for the LACDA focuses on finding solutions to both the challenges of homelessness and the shortfall in affordable housing as well as special projects related to the COVID19 pandemic. As part of Woodbury University’s adjunct faculty, she has taught a graduate level practice class focusing on a management, leadership and entrepreneurship segment, and her work relating to housing innovation, sustainability and the business of design have been published in Next City (2019), Metropolis (2016), and Design Intelligence (2012). A former president and Board member, she leads a “50:50 x 2020” gender equity initiative for the Association for Women in Architecture + Design, and is also a Board member of Ten Thousand Villages Pasadena, a local retail non-profit serving marginalized artisans around the world. She has a MSc in Major Program Management from the University of Oxford, England, and a BArch from Woodbury University.

Additional resources:

Some Good News About Opportunity Zone Investments

An Early Assessment of Opportunity Zones for Equitable Development Projects

An Overview of Opportunity Zones from the Milken Institute

OZs Not Monitored Closely Enough, Government Accountability Office Says

Kresge Foundation signs on to letter regarding Opportunity Zone

San Bernardino County Opportunity Zones

Opportunity Zones Frequently Asked Questions

Riverside County Opportunity Zones

Fresno’s Opportunity Zone Prospectus