The federal Opportunity Zone program lets investors defer or eliminate capital-gains taxes on money invested in designated low-income census tracts. An investor sells a stock or property with realized gains, rolls the proceeds into a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) within 180 days, and the QOF deploys that capital into housing, businesses, or real estate inside a designated zone. After a 10-year hold, any appreciation on the QOF investment itself is tax-free.
The program was enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which designated 8,764 zones nationally and 300 in Pennsylvania — 82 of them in Philadelphia. The One Big Beautiful Bill of July 2025 reauthorized the program and gave states a chance to redraw the map. Each Governor nominates up to 25% of their state's IRS-eligible tracts with input from cities and counties; Treasury certification is procedural, so the Governor's picks effectively stand. Gov. Shapiro can nominate up to 217 tracts out of 866 eligible statewide, and his 90-day nomination window opens July 1, 2026.
This tool ranks every eligible Pennsylvania tract on five factors — walkable urbanism, jobs access, market activity, industrial capex, and energy infrastructure — that you can re-weight yourself with the sliders on the map. Use it to pressure-test a nominee list, advocate for tracts in your district, or surface the strongest opportunities in your county before the window closes.
BPN's recommended allocation of the 217 nominations
82 to Philadelphia. Matching the city's 2017 allotment — most high-performers kept, a few underperformers swapped, new picks added. Specifics in BPN's standalone Philly OZ memo.
135 to the rest of the state. Surfaced by this tool's rankings — combined with the Philly slate, they form the full 217 PA nomination roster.
Click a tract to open its score breakdown. Use the right-hand panel to weight the five factors, narrow the view to a county or legislative district, and turn on rail lines or boundary overlays. Drag to pan; scroll or use the +/− buttons to zoom in.
Pennsylvania's Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) released a draft map of the tracts it is considering for nomination. It names 208 of 871 eligible tracts and holds 10 slots open, for 218 in all. Only 67 of BPN's 217 recommended tracts are on it. The state spreads its picks across all 63 counties that have an eligible tract; BPN concentrated them where transit, jobs access and market activity line up. Tracts on the state's draft are outlined in navy on the map above.
Every county where the state or BPN picked at least one tract. "Both" counts tracts on both lists.
| County | Eligible | State draft | BPN | Both |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia | 219 | 44 | 82 | 31 |
| Allegheny | 97 | 18 | 62 | 15 |
| Delaware | 44 | 11 | 27 | 8 |
| Erie | 26 | 9 | 7 | 3 |
| Berks | 25 | 8 | 2 | 1 |
| Lackawanna | 21 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Luzerne | 39 | 6 | 6 | 1 |
| Montgomery | 16 | 5 | 6 | 2 |
| Lehigh | 27 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| Cambria | 13 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Washington | 17 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Dauphin | 18 | 4 | 11 | 4 |
| York | 17 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
| Westmoreland | 28 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Bucks | 10 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Chester | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Fayette | 15 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Indiana | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Schuylkill | 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Lancaster | 12 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Armstrong | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Blair | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Butler | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Crawford | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Forest | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Jefferson | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Lebanon | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Mercer | 12 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Somerset | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Venango | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Warren | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Wayne | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Northampton | 12 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Adams | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Beaver | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Bedford | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Bradford | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Cameron | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Carbon | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Centre | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Clarion | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Clearfield | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Clinton | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Columbia | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Cumberland | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Elk | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Franklin | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Greene | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Huntingdon | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Juniata | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Lawrence | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Lycoming | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| McKean | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Mifflin | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Monroe | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Northumberland | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Perry | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Pike | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Potter | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Snyder | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Susquehanna | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Tioga | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Union | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Twelve tracts have an empty status in the state's data, unlike the other non-nominated tracts. We believe, but have not confirmed with DCED, that these are the shortlist for the 10 open slots. They are dashed on the map. BPN recommends filling the slots with Philadelphia Tracts 141 and 110 first, then Pittsburgh 103.02 and Folcroft 4034.01.
| Tract | Place | BPN view | BPN rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 110 | Philadelphia (Girard Ave. & 41st St.) | Recommended new zone | 23rd of 220 in Philadelphia |
| 141 | Philadelphia (Girard Ave. & 11th St.) | Current zone, recommended to keep | 4th of 220 in Philadelphia |
| 25 | Philadelphia (Ellsworth-Federal) | Strategic swap candidate | 140th of 220 in Philadelphia |
| 103.02 | Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co. | Recommended | 2nd of 648 outside Philadelphia |
| 4034.01 | Folcroft Boro, Delaware Co. | Recommended | 33rd of 648 outside Philadelphia |
| 214 | Harrisburg, Dauphin Co. | Recommended | 110th of 648 outside Philadelphia |
| 1007 | Altoona, Blair Co. (rural) | Not recommended | 186th of 648 outside Philadelphia |
| 3026 | West Chester Boro, Chester Co. | Not recommended | 225th of 648 outside Philadelphia |
| 1005 | Altoona, Blair Co. (rural) | Not recommended | 288th of 648 outside Philadelphia |
| 36 | North Cornwall Twp, Lebanon Co. (rural) | Not recommended | 414th of 648 outside Philadelphia |
| 113.01 | Patton Twp, Centre Co. (rural) | Not recommended | 499th of 648 outside Philadelphia |
| 1018 | Altoona, Blair Co. (rural) | Not recommended | 513th of 648 outside Philadelphia |
Philadelphia ranks come from BPN's Philadelphia analysis; others from this tool's default ranking. County comparison (CSV) · Tract comparison (CSV)
Move the sliders on the map to see how these tables change. Scores below use the "Balanced" preset. Tables scroll — every ranked tract is here. Download spreadsheets for offline use.
Scroll within the table to see all 75. Each row is one census tract — the "Tract" column shows the number officials will recognize (e.g., "2170.01") with the municipality and county for context. Click the equivalent on the map for full details.
| # | Score | Tract | Nearest rail station | System | Rural? |
|---|
These tracts qualify for the 30% rural tax benefit AND are within 2 miles of a rail station.
| # | Score | Tract | Also ranks in | Station | System |
|---|
Composite tilts toward broadband + substation + water + transmission. Rural-flagged eligible tracts only.
| # | Score | Tract | Public water coverage | PJM queue (MW, county) |
|---|
Composite tilts toward PJM future queue + transmission + nearby existing plants. Rural-flagged eligible tracts only.
| # | Score | Tract | PJM (MW / count, county) | Nearest existing plant (MW / mi) |
|---|
The recommended 135 reflects our composite score under "Balanced" weights and our 82+135 allocation framing. But many tracts that don't make the cut are genuinely excellent on a specific dimension. If your priority is jobs access, or transmission infrastructure, or walkable urbanism specifically — these are the tracts to know about. Each list is non-Philly and outside our recommended 135.
Composite ranks 136 through 185 — non-Philly eligible tracts that scored highly but fell just outside the recommended 135. If you think 135 is too restrictive or you're weighing alternative allocations, start here.
| # | Tract | Composite | Walk | Jobs | Market | Capex | Energy | Station |
|---|
Every eligible PA tract gets a 0–100 score based on five factors. The factors are the sliders on the map — change a slider and the score recomputes for every tract. Full source data and step-by-step build notes are in the methodology page.
We also surface in each tract's popup whether it contains a major institutional anchor — a 4-year or 2-year college (IPEDS), an operating hospital (HIFLD), or a Keystone Opportunity Zone parcel (PA DCED). These don't feed the composite score (they'd double-count with jobs access, walkable urbanism, or general market activity), but they're powerful context: 56 OZ-eligible tracts contain a PA college, 77 contain a hospital, and 117 overlap a KOZ — meaning federal OZ + state KOZ tax benefits stack for compounded incentive value.
The pool of eligible tracts comes from IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-14 (April 2026): 866 PA tracts in total, of which 274 are rural-flagged under OBBB §1400Z-2(b)(2)(C)(ii) and qualify for the 30% Qualified Rural Opportunity Fund tax benefit.