(The Center Square) — New Hampshire has been given a green light to designate more than two dozen local census tracts as federal low-income “opportunity zones” to help spur development.

On Tuesday, the Treasury Department announced that it has approved Gov. Kelly Ayotte's request to designate 25 tracts of 53 eligible sites statewide. At least 17 of the tracts are located in rural communities, Ayotte said.

"Opportunity Zones are an important tool to attract new investment, create good-paying jobs, and bring more housing to New Hampshire," Ayotte, a Republican, said in a statement. “These 25 designated areas represent tremendous opportunities to strengthen our economy and support growth in rural communities across our state."

Opportunity zones provide federal tax benefits to investors who must reinvest capital gains through qualified opportunity funds in designated low-income census tracts.

The goal of the program, created by President Donald Trump during his first term in the White House, is to direct private investment into distressed communities for redevelopment purposes.

Earlier this year, New Hampshire's Department of Business and Economic Affairs submitted a list of proposed census tract locations for opportunity zones across 10 counties to the Treasury for consideration.

“The quality of the proposals submitted by our municipal and regional partners showed just how prepared New Hampshire communities are to put private investment to work,” BEA Commissioner Lucy Lange said in a statement. "They provided a clear, strategic roadmap for local growth. From shovel-ready commercial sites to critical housing solutions, these designations will help our communities leverage state, federal, and private resources to build lasting economic vitality."

Trump signed the opportunity zone program into law in 2017 during his first presidency as part of the federal jobs and tax cuts act, but the rollout was plagued by problems and critics say a lack of safeguards in the initial law allowed much of the capital to flow to wealthier investments.

But studies revealed that many investors used the opportunity zones to fund luxury real estate projects — including high-end student housing and new hotels — instead of investing in small businesses or infrastructure projects aimed at improving distressed, low-income neighborhoods, as the law intended.

Congress overhauled the program last year with changes included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by Trump in July, 2025. The Opportunity Zone 2.0 program includes stricter low-income eligibility criteria, a decennial re-designation of the zones, mandatory reporting requirements, and more tax incentives for rural communities.

New Hampshire is among 22 states and jurisdictions that submitted a list of proposed opportunity zones to the Treasury for consideration. It wasn't clear on Tuesday how many other states have received approval.

This article was originally published by The Center Square.