Tommy DobczykOpportunity Zone Advisor, OZ Wizard · Director of Development | Certified Opportunity Zone Advisor

Unlock Arizona Real Estate: CDFIs, Infill & Land Deals! #shorts

27 Jun 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:25

In this YouTube short, Tommy Dobczyk outlines a practical framework for investing in Arizona real‑estate infill opportunities. He first explains what Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) are and how they fund neighborhood‑impact projects that traditional banks avoid. He then maps out Arizona’s key infill incentive areas—South Phoenix, Maryvale, Sunnyslope, Eastlake, Garfield, Oakland Historic, and light‑rail corridors—highlighting municipal surplus‑land programs, county tax liens, ADOT initiatives, redevelopment parcels, and the state’s abundant opportunity zones. Dobczyk argues that the most attractive deals are small multifamily infill projects (duplexes, four‑plexes, townhome clusters, cottage courts) that align with city goals for workforce housing and transit‑oriented development. He ranks strategic target cities, emphasizing Tucson as the primary market, followed by Mesa, South Phoenix, and Glendale, and notes that Arizona land is pricier than Chicago’s city‑owned inventory. The short concludes with a call to build a repeatable land pipeline, partner with municipalities, and leverage CDFIs to finance these projects.

Chapters

I would like to identify the CDFIs. A lot of people might not know what that is. So I want to break that down. Phoenix has infill incentive areas. So they have places like South Phoenix, Maryvale, Sunnyslope, Eastlake, Garfield, Oakland Historic, and near the light rail corridors. And so we could get these things for lower than land basis, rezoning upside, appreciation, and then infrastructure investment. So these are in where they're It's not as massive as like Chicago does, but what we have is there's municipal surplus land programs, county tax liens, there's the ADOT program, there's redevelopment parcels. So opportunity zones, there's more opportunity zones per capita in Arizona than there is across the country. So it's, you can see here how Arizona has the ability to get undervalued infill land before rezoning and Appreciation is built in. So the best type of deals to find in Arizona are going to be the small multifamily infills where we can do duplexes, fourplexes, townhome clusters, cottage courts, et cetera. So Phoenix currently wants workforce housing, transit-oriented development density in their, in their infill and adaptive reuse. Tempe is aggressive on all those things. Mesa, Glendale. And Tucson. So the areas of Arizona that can follow that Chicago model, they give us the step-by-step breakdown of how to do that, identify the infill corridors, build a land pipeline, partner with the cities, create repeatable products, and then move on. So Arizona land is more expensive than Chicago city-owned inventory. Plus the cost of everything is much higher. So to get the best overall strategic targets, going to Tucson is more important. Mesa's the next one, South Phoenix, then Glendale. So the smartest plays are going to be in those areas. I would like to explore what a CDFI is when it comes to development. And so this is what— it's a community development financial institution, like a credit union, and they will usually back up stuff that the other traditional banks won't do. And you can— so what basically a CDFI does is They're again, like a more, more so they're like a credit union or something to that extent. And they go after stuff that has more neighborhood impact, lower ROI.