What is the key to jump-starting Federal Way’s economy? Following the recent collapse of a downtown skyscraper proposal, Federal Way has a Plan B.

Association of Washington Cities’ (AWC) Cityvision magazine published a feature story in its March/April 2011 edition titled “The local option: Cities turn to home-grown expertise and industry niches for a new source of revival.” The story discusses downtown development in Federal Way, along with a recent move toward establishing the city as a medical device business hub.

“We’ve done just about everything we can do to attract investment, but we’ve been kicked in the gut by the recession,” said Federal Way economic development director Patrick Doherty in the article. “Here’s a city with views of Mount Rainier all day long, a place that has so much potential … everybody sees it but nobody wants to be the pioneer.”

The report includes background on the concept of business clusters — and how these clusters could be the key to giving Washington cities an economic edge.

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