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Incentive Zones

Areas of added value and opportunity

Incentive zones

Geography is our advantage

The City of Aurora, Adams County, and Arapahoe County offer the advantage of three types of incentive zones – Enterprise, Foreign Trade, and Opportunity. All offer unique benefits outside of traditional incentives which can positively impact a project’s bottom line. Explore these zones and featured properties on our interactive map.

Enterprise Zone

What is an Enterprise Zone?

Enterprise Zones (Ezs) are areas designated by the state to promote a business-friendly environment and encourage investment and job creation.  

What are the benefits?

Companies located within an EZ may be able to take advantage of state income tax credits for investments, job creation, employee benefits and training, research and development, certain contributions to enterprise zone activities, and more.  

In certain cases, the City of Aurora may package incentives equivalent to or greater than those in an EZ for sites outside the zone boundaries.  

Where is it located?

Aurora sits within the Adams County EZ bordering Denver International Airport to the north and Colfax Ave. to the south.  

Enterprise Zones

Foreign Trade Zone

What is a Foreign Trade Zone?

Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) are designated by the U.S. Department of Commerce and under the supervision of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  FTZs are considered outside the U.S. Customs Territory for purposes of duty payment.  They’re located near customs ports of entry and are the equivalent of international “free trade zones”.  

What are the benefits?

FTZs provide special customs procedures to companies engaged in international trade activity.  Items that are processed and then re-exported get duty-free treatment, and duty payment is deferred on the items until they leave the FTZ for sale in the United States.  This helps offset customs advantages available to overseas producers who compete with domestic companies.  

Companies in a FTZ may have certain tariffs on imported parts, supplies, and exported products deferred, reduced, or eliminated.  

Where is it located?

The City of Aurora is part of Foreign Trade Zone 293, strategically located to provide a central location between the coasts for businesses looking to meet increasing trade demands.  The FTZ covers the entirety of Adams and Arapahoe Counties.  Denver International Airport serves as the designated international port of entry with Customs and Border Patrol Port Director offices located on Tower Road just outside the airport’s boundaries.  

Foreign Trade Zones

Opportunity Zones

What is an Opportunity Zone?

Opportunity zones (OZ) are census tracts designated by the United States Department of the Treasury through the federal OZ program to spur investment and development.  

The federal Opportunity Zone (OZ) program is a federal tax incentive for investors to invest in low-income urban and rural communities through the favorable treatment of reinvested capital gains and forgiveness of tax on new capital gains.

What are the benefits?

The OZ program is a federal tax incentive for investors to receive favorable treatment of reinvested capital gains and forgiveness of tax on new capital gains when they invest in low-income urban and rural communities.  

Tax benefits range from deferring capital gains taxes from untapped assets to eliminating the gains on any subsequent appreciation made possible by this investment of capital.  

Where are they located?

Aurora has five census tracts designated as OZs split between Adams and Arapahoe Counties.  The largest OZ is strategically located next to Denver International Airport.  

Opportunity Zones