Opportunity Zone Program

It provides tax benefits to investors who hold their investment in select areas (Opportunity Zones) for a period of five to ten years. Kentland is located within an opportunity zone, and we’re inviting people to root their lives here. We want new industries, jobs and families to flourish in our hometown. The best way to invite new life here to Kentland is through what’s called a ‘Prospectus’. It’s best to think of a prospectus as a business card that carries a ton of valuable information and data regarding your town. We’ve created a prospectus that invites interested parties to invest in our opportunity zone (yay!).

This is a great question, and we’re glad you asked. Our Opportunity Zone is fairly large and covers a white range of space. We wanted to make sure that our community could voice their interests, concerns, excitement and potential challenges.

What new industries would we love to see root themselves in our town as a way of electrifying our economy? How big would we want Kentland to become in terms of population? What are the key assets that draw people to want to live in Kentland? What is missing?

With all of these questions in mind, a leadership team was formed under the guidance of Mike Davis, who is a longtime resident and local business owner. He hosted a community focus group on Tuesday, February 11th at the Kentland Library and gathered key data with the help of the organization that’s spearheading work with Opportunity Zones in Rural Areas like our own. They’re called ROZI (Rural Opportunity Zone Initiative) and they’re comprised of members from two distinct groups: the PCRD (Purdue Center for Regional Development) and OCRA (Office of Community and Rural Affairs).

For starters, they identified Kentland’s key assets. This includes things proximity to major cities, tourism opportunities, quality school systems, strong community involvement, low cost of living, low taxes and how we’re perfectly poised for new sectors of business to come in and work out of.

They also mentioned areas of county investment that should be consider. This consists of affordable housing, senior housing, broadband, health services, warehousing, town square beautification, childcare and co-working spaces. All of this information was poured out into the room over the course of ninety minutes.

While working to organize the focus group, Mike Davis had also formed a Task Force of 10 members from the community. They were going to assist him in his journey to help bring about positive change in Kentland through economic development efforts. Once the data from the focus group was consolidated with the help of ROZI, the Task Force was able to identify two initial projects: a multi-phase, intergenerational wellness campus and business development in six key areas: warehousing, logistics, solar energy, agribusiness, real estate and manufacturing.

To receive more, in-depth information on these projects, as well as current development projects with our Firehouse and Airport, check out the Our Opportunities tab in the navigation bar of this website!