2026: Looking Ahead

January 12, 2026 

Last week, I reflected on the 25 years of KB Advisory Group’s history and the work we have done alongside public and private clients in a rapidly growing region. This piece looks ahead.

Cities and regions are entering a period that is more constrained, more complex, and less forgiving than the one that preceded it.

In this environment, decisions made without a sharp understanding of market reality and fiscal limits are increasingly difficult to justify. The margin for error is narrowing, and the cost of getting it wrong is rising.

Capital is more expensive and typically less patient. Housing pressures have become structural rather than cyclical. Public resources face increased scrutiny, and expectations around transparency and outcomes are higher.

At the same time, the core questions facing communities have remained consistent: what is feasible, what is sustainable over time, and who bears the risk if assumptions are off?

At KB Advisory Group, our work will remain centered on those questions.

The next few years will stress-test how communities make decisions. Tighter public budgets and uncertainty across real estate sectors may reduce the number of projects that can realistically move forward using the old rules.

Local public sector tools remain useful and often powerful, but they are not limitless.

In Atlanta and across Georgia, communities are already seeing the effects of tighter budgets, rising construction costs, and slower deal flow. Tax incentives, infrastructure commitments, and housing subsidies are being asked to do more at the same time that public tolerance for risk and change is shrinking.

Across all of this, institutional credibility matters. Trust is built through competence and the ability to deliver on what is promised.

Public and private actors that fail to establish credibility will find their options narrowing.

As KB Advisory Group enters its next chapter, 25 years into this work, the aim is to help decision-makers move forward with an understanding of the conditions they face and the consequences that may follow, with the goal of expanding benefits more broadly across the communities they serve.

These are big issues, with real consequences.

We’re here for the work.

Geoff Koski
President & Owner
KB Advisory Group
geoff@kbagroup.com
www.kbagroup.com