Mall of America Gets Opportunity Zone Status

"The Mall of America and the booming district around it are now considered 'economically distressed' in the eyes of the federal government, qualifying the area for new tax breaks intended for the country’s poorest neighborhoods," Eric Roper reports for StarTribune.

Bloomington's South Loop area is home to some lower-income residents, the paper reports, but it's also an area already in the midst of a development boom; it will soon have nine new hotels. Two of the opportunity sites approved by the state are owned by the mall.

The federal Opportunity Zones program, created in 2017, has garnered criticism for spurring gentrification and displacement. A Brookings report featured in the article suggests that many zones around the country will maximize development opportunities but not necessarily deliver benefits to low-income residents.