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Fort Myers staff asks council to prioritize top five census tracts for OZ2 redesignation
Summary
Economic development staff asked the council to endorse a prioritized list of Opportunity Zones for the state OZ2 process and recommended tracts 18, 21, 19, 16 and 24 for city support; staff noted the governor will select roughly 25% of nominated tracts statewide and Lee County likely will have nine chosen for submission.
Economic development staff on Wednesday briefed the council on the upcoming Opportunity Zone redesignation process and asked for city priorities to forward to Lee County.
Caitlin Danks, economic development staff, explained that the new OZ2 designation process reflects updated census criteria and that new designations will be effective Jan. 1, 2027. She said Lee County may apply for as many of the 38 identified tracts as it wishes but that state rules and the governor’s selection mean Lee County will likely secure only about nine final site selections.
Danks walked through a city ranking table and recommended five priority map IDs for the city: 18 (Midtown), 21 (near Page Field/airport), 19 (currently in OZ1 and a reapply candidate), 16 and 24 (partial city tracts). She noted those top tracts have attributes favorable for a redevelopment narrative — industrial/commercial building stock, vacant acreage, available utilities and supportive incentive overlays such as HUBZone and Brownfield designations.
Councilmembers supported focusing on tract 18 (Midtown) as the first choice and discussed coordination with county staff, the Horizon Foundation Economic Prosperity Task Force (which will meet March 10) and the county commission later in the selection process. Staff asked the council for feedback to submit a ranked list to Lee County by the early‑March deadline.
