By Ronald Fieldstone (January 3, 2019, 3:33 PM EST) -- The opportunity zone tax legislation is receiving major attention in the real estate industry. Experts predict there will be a substantial amount of capital that will be deployed in this space in the coming months. An opportunity zone, or OZ, is an economically distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, can qualify for tax breaks. The U.S. Treasury Department designated nearly 9,000 census tracts as OZs across urban and rural areas throughout the United States. It is estimated that approximately 35 million Americans live in OZs, which have higher poverty and unemployment rates than the rest of the nation. Opportunity zones are called "opportunity zones" because they are supposed to provide opportunities to the residents as well as the investors. But the question remains how well will the OZs help improve the quality of life of those living in the disadvantaged neighborhoods once development starts to pour in. Will the new capital lead to gentrification? How could current residents participate in the improvement of their communities thanks to OZ-fueled investments?...