Shared spaces continue to gain popularity, whether coworking among tech startups, shared manufacturing within the locally made movement, or common kitchens for promising restauranteurs. The funds that come with Opportunity Zones likely will expand shared spaces into communities of need. Opportunity Zones were created by the recent federal tax law to spur private investment in distressed communities nationwide. The law’s premise is that investors will fund projects they might not otherwise fund and distressed communities will get much needed capital they otherwise don’t have access to. Communities are vying for these dollars and some hope these dollars will expand shared space concepts within their communities.

So what happened in Boston? There’s a shared space there called CommonWealth Kitchen, that has disproportionately driven the foodie movement in the region, helping to launch over 50 food startups. As a recent Boston Globe article highlighted, the roots of CommonWealth Kitchen’s demise lies with the gentrification that came with redeveloping wasting industrial properties, such as their site. The Kitchen is wildly successful, but their rent is dramatically accelerating. As high growth urban centers gentrify, industrial sites become attractive for higher returns found in apartments, cool office space and edgy retail. So CommonWealth Kitchen is scrambling to find alternative space though time is running out.

As the Boston Globe article notes, over 800 jobs in this facility are now at risk, as is some of the fabric that has made Boston’s renaissance special. Rather than being a virtuous cycle, where a cool food scene driven by creativity from this shared kitchen continues to interplay with an evolving neighborhood, gentrification is breaking the cycle. “Sure, Boston stands to gain when new apartments, offices, and labs sprout our of shabby old industrial properties: more workers to feed the tech economy, maybe, or more taxes for the city’s coffers. But Boston loses something important, too.”

As communities compete for Opportunity Zone dollars, they should keep in mind the temporal nature of some of this development. Nothing lasts forever, ask CommonWealth Kitchen. But what can last is a well-designed plan to ensure that shared spaces and other structures intended for broad community use, remain so – even as uses and models change (no one is talking about incubators anymore). These spaces often require public or foundation support to become sustainable. Therein lies the leverage. Otherwise, these spaces will become the 21^st Century’s version of the parking lot, waiting for the market to catch up with a more lucrative use. And even more perverse, these spaces trailblaze the reinvention of a neighborhood. Once gentrification starts, they’re then repurposed for more lucrative uses.

Communities and their economic development leadership should recognize the leverage they have and ensure that any support they provide is concomitant with retaining the very fabric of what makes these evolving communities so attractive. Opportunity Zone funds allow them to redefine gentrification to be inclusive not only of existing residents but retentive of the very fabric that makes them so alluring in the first place.

With more than 30 years’ experience in law and business, Newt Fowler, a partner in Womble Bond Dickinson’s business practice, advises many investors, entrepreneurs and technology companies, guiding them through all aspects of business planning, financing transactions, technology commercialization and M&A. He’s the pastboard chair ofTEDCO. Newt can be reached at newt.fowler@wbd-us.com.