MY Development Fund, L.P.
Vista and Opportunity Zones
Opportunity Zone Description
The December 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (P.L. 115-97) created new tax incentives for investments made in Opportunity Zones to spur economic development and job creation by encouraging long-term investment in low-income communities nationwide. Opportunity Zones are designated census tracts that provide incentives for long-term private sector investment in economically distressed communities. State executives nominated census tracts of communities most in need of private investment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which then certified the tracts as Opportunity Zones. The Opportunity Zone designation encourages investment in these certified census tracts by granting investors extensive Federal tax advantages for using their capital gains to finance new projects and enterprises ( or substantially improve existing projects and enterprises) located within Opportunity Zones
Vista Consulting Services, LLC., MY Development Fund, L.P. has the expertise and know how to select the best communities and mobilize appropriate strategies and approaches. In addition, we have developed and tested unique innovative products to address social needs that will ensure healthy turnarounds for financial investments and returns.
Experience
James P. Butler, Fund Manager and President of Vista Consulting Services, LLC, has a long, distinguished career with a successful track record in community development. He has designed and implemented products and entrepreneurial strategies to reverse neighborhood decline. Now with the one missing ingredient- patient capital investments- earmarked solely for these communities, MY Development Fund, L.P. will be able to achieve scale that will actually reverse the decline and stimulate growth and appreciation.
Our Mission
Our mission is to perform the due diligence to select the best communities that not only have the social need, but also possess existing ingredients that can generate jobs and community improvements sufficient enough to warrant adequate capital investments by utilizing a multi-prong approach.
Understanding that economic realities cannot be understated or ignored, our team measures essential economics and market conditions throughout our target communities and surrounding areas currently, and in the foreseeable future.
Our Philosophy
The key to our development and investment strategy is the inclusion of local stakeholders and the already vested individuals and institutions who are wholly and actively involved in the community. We believe any other approach would fail. Change cannot occur from a top-down approach; that's commonly failed over the last fifty years of our governmental society. Nurturing, empowering, supporting and investing in target areas will create positive impact and turnaround that will breed financial success and appreciation values.
Our Strategy
MY Development Fund, L.P. has designed and tested specific innovative products that will be implemented by companies that MY Development Fund, L.P. will invest in and maintain at least 51% owner control. The first is America's Neighborhood Insurance Company (ANIC) incorporated in Delaware, November 2019 and headquartered in McKeesport, PA. ANIC's core product will address value gaps. A value gap is the difference between the capital used to build or renovate a home, and the amount a lender will lend and that an individual would be secure investing in.
Unfortunately, because of the depressed real estate market in these areas, the comparables used to determine the value will define the financing a lender will loan to an individual, thus creating the value gap. Currently, value gaps are dealt with via grants which, in turn, lower the sales price into what becomes current value of the property. Consequently, the adjusted sales price also now lowers values of all residences in that area further defeating the revitalization process.
Value gaps are costly in several ways. First, the amount of each grant and the number of grants needed to revitalize a community is astronomical. Secondly, and more importantly, the comparables that become established are unrealistic for anyone to be able to build or renovate around. ANIC’s insurance product will cover value gaps up to $175,000
on owner-occupied homes located in ANIC approved neighborhoods so that adequate social or bank funds could be lent, thus assuring investors of their return and relieving the homeowner of the obligation for gap financing. Plus, the value of the home will now become the actual cost of building or renovation, lifting values in the community rather than depressing them. This approach also offers an opportunity to address affordability issues for owner-occupied homeownership in target areas. By utilizing the existing market and our special development companies, we will be able to build and renovate these homes and address the gap issue as well as being able to ensure economic integration.
All capital, whether lent or granted, will be regenerative. Recycling capital and leveraging market players will enable us to build scale sufficient to fully bring about change in our target areas - revitalizing and renewing these communities and leading to an improved quality of life and appreciating values for all.
capital, whether lent or granted, will be regenerative. Regenerating capital and leveraging market players will enable us to build scale sufficient to fully bring about change in our targeted areas- revitalizing and renewing these communities and leading to an improved quality of life and appreciating values for all.
Summary to our Community Development Approach
Our approach is to deploy capital after in-depth analytics and onsite evaluation of every community and business we select and invest in. We utilize professionals with very specific expertise and experience, meshed with local vested individuals and institutions. We apply a revitalization strategy for each targeted community that will be sufficient in scope and magnitude, and will be assured of the capital investments of others to leverage our involvement in stimulating growth and reversing decline.
Transparency and accountability go hand in hand and benefits everyone. Data will be gathered to measure outcomes in areas such as new employment and pay scales, how did it rebuild the tax base, how did it leverage other investments and social grants. With this being such an innovative and extraordinarily new approach, it could be expanded only if we can document its impact; not simply to the investors, but to the low-income residents and our targeted communities. MY Development Fund, L.P. maintains a commitment of reliable and systematic data collection, perceptible analysis and full transparency for all research and public policy professionals.
OZ Digital Library Catalogue
Click on the link to see materials and resources regarding the formation and evolution of the Opportunity Zone Initiative as well as details on each of the 8,800 zones and best practices already being deployed in communities across the nation.
OZ Digital Library Catalogue
Novogradac Report: QOF Investment Up Sharply in Final Six Months of 2021;
20 Cities Have $200 Million or More in
Planned Investment
Dollars invested in qualified opportunity funds (QOFs) tracked by Novogradac increased dramatically the last half
of 2021, and those moneys are being targeted for investment across ever more areas. According to the Novogradac Opportunity Zones Investment Report: Data Through Dec. 31, 2021, QOFs tracked by Novogradac raised $6.88 billion
in equity in the final six months of 2021, the largest dollar amount in any period for which Novogradac has tracked investment. The 978 QOFs that have reported year end fundraising numbers (Novogradac is tracking a total of
1,342 QOFs) have received an aggregate amount of $24.40 billion of equity from investors, which is 39.3% more
than the totals as of June 30, 2021.
*Novogradac is a consulting firm and an established Opportunity Zones (OZs) leader headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Information is submitted to them voluntarily for valuation and impact reporting producing updates and other detailed reports on a quarterly basis.