Findlay’s 2027 Opportunity Zone is not Hancock’s 2018 tract

FINDLAY, Ohio — Hancock County’s only designated 2027 Opportunity Zone is census tract 9.02, and it is not a holdover of the county’s 2018 zone. Opportunity Zone Invest’s Census internal-point analysis places the 2027 tract in the city of Findlay. The tract is marked Rural on the CDFI Fund final list. It qualifies as a low-income community on Treasury’s income test — a median family income at 64.4 percent of the statewide median, below the 70 percent threshold — and not on the poverty test, where its 12.4 percent poverty rate is under the 20 percent cutoff. Those figures come from Treasury’s September 23, 2026 eligibility file, which uses 2020–2024 American Community Survey data. The county’s only 2018 Opportunity Zone was tract 1, which is not on the 2027 list; tract 9.02 was not on the 2018 list. They are different tracts.

Lead photo: the Hancock County Courthouse in downtown Findlay, completed in 1888. City-context photograph; it does not show a designated tract. Credit: Christopher L. Riley / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped and resized.

The two Hancock County tracts, compared:

Treasury treats a tract as an eligible low-income community if its poverty rate is at least 20 percent and its median-family-income ratio is no more than 125 percent, or if that income ratio is 70 percent or less. In the September 23 file, tract 9.02 has a tract median family income of $59,693 and an area median of $92,749 — Ohio’s statewide median; the file leaves the metropolitan CBSA field blank for this tract — for a ratio of 64.4 percent. That is under the 70 percent income-only test. The poverty rate, 12.4 percent, is under the 20 percent poverty test, so the tract does not qualify on poverty. Treasury flags the tract as an eligible low-income community on the income path.

The city’s November 10 newsroom release, as reprinted on November 11 by The Courier, names tract 9.02 as Hancock County’s only 2027 Opportunity Zone. The city said it submitted four tracts and Ohio nominated 9.02. The release describes the tract as running from West Trenton Avenue on the north to West Lima Street on the south, with Main Street as the eastern edge and the western boundary extending west of I-75 near West Trenton Avenue and following part of Western Avenue farther south. Mayor Christina Muryn said, “I'm excited about what this designation could mean for Findlay's existing neighborhoods.” She also said, “As we focus on revitalization, this gives us another way to attract private investment that can bring vacant or deteriorating properties back into use, create more housing options, and help neighborhood businesses grow.” Matt Gilroy, director of Findlay-Hancock County Economic Development, said, “Findlay's Opportunity Zone gives local investors a new way to put their capital to work close to home.” He also said, “We look forward to working with investors, property owners, and businesses to identify projects where this incentive can help move a redevelopment or expansion forward.”

WKTN and the Fostoria Free Press also published the city’s announcement on November 11. Those reports, like The Courier’s, name tract 9.02 as the only 2027 zone in the county and note the rural incentives. They do not report that the tract is different from Hancock County’s 2018 zone, or that it qualifies on the income test rather than poverty. Ohio has 260 designated tracts on the final list, 96 of them Rural; Hancock County has one, which the Ohio Department of Development’s November 6 release also records.

Property inside the 2018 Hancock County tract is not automatically inside the 2027 zone. A 2027 investment has to be in tract 9.02, and only then if it otherwise qualifies. Because the tract is marked Rural, the enhanced rural incentives described in Rural 30% step-up: what Notice 2026-55 says, and what it is worth on a $500K gain can apply if the investment otherwise qualifies. Confirm a parcel’s tract with the census tract lookup or on the map, and see the tract 9.02 page and the Hancock County zone list. A tract can straddle city limits; Opportunity Zone Invest’s Census internal-point analysis places tract 9.02 in Findlay, but it does not mean every parcel in the tract is inside today’s city limits.

The designation takes effect January 1, 2027, under Treasury’s November 5 announcement. The next test is whether the city, the county or a developer names a project, financing or permits inside tract 9.02. A designation does not pay for, permit or build anything on its own.

Related. Tract 9.02, Hancock County · Hancock County Opportunity Zones · Ohio Opportunity Zones · Designated-tract map · Census tract lookup · Rural 30% step-up: what Notice 2026-55 says, and what it is worth on a $500K gain · Treasury designates all 6,576 Opportunity Zone 2.0 tracts on its final list

Reporting note: Eligibility figures (poverty rate 12.405064 percent, rounded to 12.4; median family income $59,693; area median $92,749, recorded as Ohio’s state median family income with a blank CBSA field; ratio 64.359725 percent, rounded to 64.4) were read from Treasury’s September 23, 2026 eligibility file, which uses ACS 2020–2024 data. The 2027 and 2018 Hancock County tract counts were counted from the CDFI Fund final workbook and the December 14, 2018 CDFI designated-QOZ list. The city assignment for tract 9.02 is Opportunity Zone Invest’s Census internal-point analysis, not a statement that the tract lies entirely inside today’s city limits. Quotes are from the city’s November 10 release as reprinted by The Courier on November 11. No outreach and no independently conducted interviews. Educational reporting, not tax, legal or investment advice.