Ozzie Areu, CEO of the Atlanta-based Areu Bros. studio, has announced the launch of a Qualified Opportunity Zones platform to promote support of inclusion and diversity.
The program, unveiled Tuesday, will encompass entertainment, technology and real estate through Qualified Opportunity Zones in Atlanta, Puerto Rico, Miami, and Los Angeles. The studio said it has become the first film and television studio to join the program, enacted as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which provide long-term equity investors with significant tax incentives when they re-invest their capital gains in businesses and real estate located in designated low-income communities.
Ozzie Areu and his brother Will Areu announced early last year that they had formed Areu Bros. and purchased the former campus of Tyler Perry Studios to build a multi-faceted media campus. Ozzie Areu had been president of production for Tyler Perry Studios for a decade.
Tuesday’s announcement disclosed that Areu Bros. partner and singer Gloria Estefan and Areu Brothers President Kim Leadford will be part of their team supporting the Qualified Opportunity Zone program. Steve Glickman, a former senior economic advisor to President Obama and one of the architects of the Qualified Opportunity Zone program, and Obama advisor Andrés W. López will also be part of the team.
“Opportunity Zones stimulate communities through infusing new capital to create jobs and economic growth in underserved areas, much like our home in Fulton County’s Greenbriar neighborhood,” Ozzie Areu said.” I’ve spent over a decade working for Tyler Perry witnessing the studio create jobs and opportunity in Greenbriar and now it is my honor to have the ability to deploy resources to an amazing, vibrant community that has supported me and my family for years.”
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