Legal Insight

Economic Development Is Increasingly About Execution

What causes some economic development projects to move forward smoothly while others lose momentum long before construction ever begins?

That question surfaced repeatedly across recent industry conversations, including discussions at the 2026 KAED Collaboration Conference.

The focus was less on headline projects themselves and more on the realities that determine whether projects stay aligned once timelines tighten, infrastructure questions emerge, and multiple stakeholders are working toward the same outcome.

None of those pressures are entirely new on their own. What feels different is how often they are overlapping at the same time and how directly communities are being forced to think about readiness, coordination, and long term sustainability in practical terms.

The challenge for many communities is no longer identifying opportunity. It is sustaining alignment long enough to execute successfully.

Increasingly, economic development work is becoming less about any single project and more about managing overlapping pressures at the same time: infrastructure, workforce, funding, permitting, redevelopment, and long term sustainability. More >

Shaky Ground for CDFIs: New Executive Orders Bring Uncertainty

Since assuming office on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump has implemented a series of significant measures aimed at drastically reducing spending across the federal government. These efforts have the potential to dramatically alter states’ reliance on federal grant funding to support a wide range of programs that assist economically disadvantaged communities. In particular, President Trump’s recent executive order targeting the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) not only raises concerns for Kentuckians who depend on its financial assistance for community based financial institutions, as well as for small businesses and infrastructure projects that benefit from the Fund’s incentives and investments. More >