On Monday, Accelerator for America, Drexel University’s Nowak Metro Finance Lab, the Economic Innovation Group and The Governance Project hosted a packed Opportunity Zone Investor Summit at Stanford. The Summit celebrated a milestone: over the past year, 27 cities have used a common template to design Opportunity Zone Investment Prospectuses to help communicate their assets and unveil projects that are investor ready and community enhancing. While cities have largely constituted the first wave of Prospectus adopters, the tool is already being applied at the metropolitan and neighborhood scales and could form a useful tool for states and rural counties.

At the Summit, Accelerator for America and the Nowak Lab released a report entitled “The Opportunity Zone Investment Prospectus: Early Observations and Next Steps.”

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The Investment Prospectus tool, fully realized, should yield a major data dividend and reward cities that collect and marshal data in ways that unveil hidden market potential, catalyze private investment and drive inclusive growth.

The Investment Prospectus should drive a common methodology – a financing charrette – for public, private and civic practitioners to sit together and work through different financing scenarios for concrete deals that have the potential for transformative social impact.

The Investment Prospectus tool should drive a new system of community development that moves beyond the production and provision of affordable housing to include a focus on growing locally-owned businesses, equipping residents with the skills they need and building wealth.

The Investment Prospectus tool should enable broader health, energy and social outcomes for disadvantaged people and places.

The Investment Prospectus provides a new way for localities to think about their strengths rather than passively awaiting the market to decide how to deploy capital. We hope that these early observations and strategies for next steps helps communities make this new tool the norm rather than the exception.