This Opportunity Zone pitch competition finalist is redeveloping affordable housing using solar power

NEWARK, N.J. - Oct. 3, 2019 - PRLog -- It's been a busy summer of seizing opportunity in Opportunity Zones (OZ) for 548 Capital. Closing a $2 million capital investment in its Solar Chicago Fund for the acquisition of four aging apartment complexes on Chicago's South Side, 548 Capital is on its way to achieving its goals to redevelop a portfolio of 3000 sustainable affordable housing units, create 500 jobs and capture a 33% energy cost savings in the process. Rather than raising rents on its newly redeveloped apartments, the Solar Chicago Fund will pass through energy gains via conservation, rooftop solar panels and a 50-acre community solar development off-site in order to keep the units affordable.

"We're trying to show through our investment strategy that you can redevelop a community without gentrifying it," 548 Capital CEO AJ Patton, recently named one of Midwest Energy News' 40 under 40, told the Real Deal. "Energy efficiency has always paid for itself, it's just that no one has ever had the patience to make that commitment to low-income communities."

Register to attend the Opportunity Zone Boot Camp & Pitch Competition in Newark on October 17 at NJIT in downtown Newark, NJ and see Mr. Patton share his passion and vision for a more sustainable, affordable future for residents in Chicago Opportunity Zones in a live-fire national pitch competition. Alongside other OZ contestants, this open project competition places real people pitching real projects in front of OZ redevelopment experts to judge who presents the most compelling and impactful OZ investment opportunity.

Winners will be announced and prizes awarded in a reception that follows.

The Opportunity Zone Boot Camp & Pitch Competition in Newark is a collaboration between BrownfieldListings.com, the New Jersey Innovation Institute, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the Center for Creative Land Recycling and the Brownfield Coalition of the Northeast.

Brownfield Listings, LLC (BL) is a national redevelopment marketplace, project platform and economic development ecosystem dedicated to the design, diligence, and development of the built-environment. The BrownfieldListings.com ecosystem lives online as a robust marketplace of ideas to reimagine, redevelop and revitalize real estate in any condition anywhere in the U.S. Basic listings and basic access are always free on BL.