HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-18-26 Public Comment - M. Magrans - Public Comment in Support of Opportunity Zone Nomination --- Census Tract 6From:Mike Magrans
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Public Comment in Support of Opportunity Zone Nomination — Census Tract 6
Date:Thursday, June 18, 2026 4:56:43 PM
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Dear Members of the Bozeman City Commission,
We write in strong support of the City's proposal to nominate Gallatin County Census Tract 6
for Opportunity Zone 2.0 designation and to urge the Commission to authorize the CityManager to submit this application to the Montana Department of Commerce.
Outlaw Real Estate Partners has spent the past several years actively developing infill real
estate in Bozeman's Northeast Neighborhood. That direct experience — site control,entitlement, financing, and construction — gives us a clear view of the capital formation
challenges that make otherwise viable projects difficult to pencil. Even in a strong market, thegap between what debt can cover and what equity requires is real and growing. Opportunity
Zone designation creates a capital formation mechanism that directly addresses that gap byattracting patient equity from investors with unrealized gains — investors who would not
otherwise look at a market this size.
Tract 6 is the right geography for this designation. It sits at the convergence of the Northeast,Midtown, and Pole Yard Urban Renewal Districts, areas where significant public investment
through TIF has laid the groundwork for private redevelopment but where that private capitalhas been slower to materialize. The overlay of OZ incentives, TIF, LIHTC, and New Markets
Tax Credits creates a genuinely differentiated capital stack — one capable of makingworkforce housing and mixed-use infill projects financially viable at a scale Bozeman needs.
The workforce housing problem in Bozeman is not a planning problem. The plans are good. It
is a capital problem. The teachers, healthcare workers, tradespeople, and hospitalityemployees who sustain this economy cannot afford to live near their jobs, and the projects that
could house them cannot clear the return thresholds required by conventional capital at currentcosts. Opportunity Zone designation provides a structurally different incentive — one that can
change the math on projects that the market would otherwise leave undone.
We encourage the Commission to move forward with this nomination and to do so withurgency. The designation process is competitive, the timeline is short, and the upside for
Bozeman is material.
Thank you for the Commission's leadership on this issue.
Respectfully submitted,
Mike Magrans
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Mike Magrans
Managing Partner / Chief Investment Officer
11 Lone Peak Dr. Suite 201 Big Sky, MT59716
mobile: 646.483.6729
OUTLAWREALESTATEPARTNERS.COM