Brookfield is getting into the Opp Zone game

Firm set to launch fund "in the next month or two," CEO says

Brookfield Property Partners CEO Brian Kingston 
Brookfield Property Partners CEO Brian Kingston

Brookfield Asset Management is the latest firm getting into Opportunity Zones.

The firm’s New York real estate division, Brookfield Property Partners, is going to launch an Opportunity Zone fund, Bloomberg reported.

“We are launching a fund in the next month or two,” Brookfield Property Partners’ CEO Brian Kingston said at a conference in California on Monday, according to the outlet. There were no specifics on the size of the fund or where it would invest.

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Brookfield joins a host of other real estate firms looking to get in on Opportunity Zones. For example, Silverstein Properties and Cantor Fitzgerald are aiming to fund raise $2 billion for their own fund. And Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital and Westport Capital Partners hope to bring in $3 billion for theirs.

The federal program came out of the 2017 tax reform, and provides government incentives to developers who invest in low-income areas. However, uncertainties remain over the specific regulations that will govern the program.

Still, such incentives are designed to promote building in places “that are otherwise crippled,” Kingston said, according to Bloomberg. [Bloomberg] — Mary Diduch