Bringing Opportunity Zone investment to Central Appalachian coal-impacted communities, creating new jobs and businesses that support sustainable growth.
Appalachian Community Capital today announced receipt of a $1,000,000 technical assistance grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to help bring Opportunity Zone investment into Central Appalachian communities in Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
APEG is a lead partner in Opportunity Appalachia, a technical support initiative designed to strengthen investable transactions in target rural communities, attracting Opportunity Zone investors to back small businesses and real estate development, leading to more local jobs.
“We are thrilled to be able to bring more financial and technical resources to our region, to help Appalachia secure more investment in important industries such as manufacturing, IT, downtown development, healthcare, education, food systems, heritage tourism and recreation, ” remarked Appalachian Community Capital (ACC) President & CEO Donna Gambrell, whose organization will coordinate the Opportunity Appalachia effort. She added, “We expect to strengthen or help establish more than 20 businesses, which will lead to the creation of more than 700 new jobs, and generate private investments totaling $7.5 mm.”
Opportunity Appalachia is led by a six-member consortium comprised of regional and national organizations with expertise in financing and marketing that will support local projects to develop sophisticated investment packets geared toward prospective OZ investors. Opportunity Appalachia partners include:
- Appalachian Community Capital,
- Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth (APEG),
- Opportunity Southwest Virginia / UVA – Wise,
- West Virginia Community Development Hub,
- Main Street America, and
- Coastal Enterprises – CCML
“With the Opportunity Appalachia project, APEG hopes to help up to five communities in our 25-county region develop investable projects in federal opportunity zones and then have an opportunity to pitch those projects to qualified Opportunity Fund investors,” according to APEG President Mike Jacoby. “Rural southeastern Ohio is full of investable companies and real estate projects. We just have to work harder to make investors aware of those opportunities.”
More information on Opportunity Appalachia is available at appalachiancommunitycapitalcdfi.org/oa-program/. Additional information will be provided shortly about upcoming information and outreach meetings, and how to participate.
ACC is a 20-member CDFI lending intermediary whose members and their affiliates manage over $1 billion in assets supporting economic development across Appalachia.
This Appalachian Regional Commission grant is made under the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative, which is an integrated, multi-agency effort to align and invest federal economic resources in communities and regions negatively impacted by changes in the coal economy.
View APEG Release HERE
