HMSAdvisory
Specialization

Qualified Opportunity Zones

Structural and operational support for Opportunity Zone investors — from fund formation through the long-term hold.

What They Are

A federal program with long-horizon implications.

A federal program that channels private capital into designated communities, with structural and operational requirements across a long-term hold. HMS provides lifecycle support, working alongside the client's professional advisors throughout:

  • Fund formation and entity structuring
  • Property identification within designated zones
  • Capital deployment and substantial improvement
  • Ongoing compliance and operational reporting
Our Role

How HMS helps clients navigate them.

Opportunity Zone investments fail more often on operations than on strategy. We focus on the ground-level discipline required to preserve the program's benefits over a decade-long hold.

Structural design

We design the QOF and underlying QOZB so that compliance is built in rather than bolted on — including operating agreements, capital call mechanics, and substantial improvement frameworks.

Property selection

We identify and underwrite candidate assets within designated zones — primarily in the Chesapeake Bay region and the Florida Keys, including Monroe County's coastal tracts — with attention to both zone eligibility and the underlying real-estate fundamentals.

Operational continuity

Annual operations are where compliance is preserved or lost. We maintain the working-capital safe harbors, semi-annual asset tests, and records required across the hold.

Advisor coordination

We do not replace your professional advisors. We work alongside them and we structure our work so that they have what they need at the moments that matter.
Process

A six-phase engagement.

A complete Opportunity Zone engagement spans a decade or more. The phases below describe the structure of a typical relationship from initial consultation through long-term hold.

Phase 01

Property identification within zones

Not every property in a designated zone is a fit. We start here because the rest of the program only matters if the underlying asset qualifies — identifying candidates that meet zone-eligibility criteria, the substantial improvement requirements, and the investor's underlying return expectations.

Phase 02

Initial timing & structural planning

With a candidate property in view, we address the investor's structural objectives and the program's timing requirements. Structure must be in place before key program elections are made.

Phase 03

QOF formation & QOZB structuring

We design and operate the Qualified Opportunity Fund and the underlying Qualified Opportunity Zone Business — coordinating with your professional advisors on entity selection, formation, and the operating documents that govern compliance.

Phase 04

Capital deployment & substantial improvement

We oversee the deployment timeline, the substantial improvement program, and the documentation required to evidence compliance with the program's improvement thresholds.

Phase 05

Operational compliance & reporting

Year-over-year, we maintain the operating discipline that the program requires — semi-annual asset tests, working-capital safe-harbors, and the records that support the long-term hold.

Phase 06

Long-term hold through year ten

We design and operate the hold so that the program's structural benefits are preserved across the full term — and we plan ahead, with your professional advisors, for the eventual exit.

Begin

Begin the conversation early.

Opportunity Zone strategy is time-sensitive — the program's structural windows are short. The most productive conversations begin before key elections must be made.

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