"There's a story in the numbers," said Anne Ricker, a market analyst who recently completed a three-month, in-depth study of Federal Way's economic climate.

The good news is that the story she tells sounds generally uplifting.

And while it includes plenty of hard work ahead for the city and local businesses, it's a story she believes will have a happy ending for Federal Way businesses.

After months of business surveys and number crunching, Federal Way's market analysts delivered their initial findings to the city council before Memorial Day, wrapping up the opening steps in the next phase of revitalization the city hopes to implement downtown.

Their prognosis indicates that the local economy has the means and infrastructure to grow, assuming the city can set in motion a cohesive vision for downtown Federal Way and exhibit some self-confidence when attracting new businesses.

Ricker, principal for the Leland Consulting Group the city hired to conduct its market analysis, followed her optimism regarding Federal Way's economic climate with a strong dose of honesty about the shortcomings the city must reconcile in the near future.

"Federal Way has a pretty serious inferiority complex," Ricker said, "and they've got to get over it."

She cited the city's lack of self-confidence as one the obstacles in its plan to reshape downtown Federal Way with new shops and a mixed-used retail and residential lifestyle center like University Village.

"It's hard to bargain with the private sector when you come to the table with those issues," she said in an interview last week from her office in Denver. When dealing with prospective developers, Richer said, the city must exude confidence that the businesses they bring to town will thrive in Federal Way.

But Federal Way must decide what it is, the analysts said, before it can began to sell itself to investors.

The Colorado-based Leland Consulting Group indicated that, in the absence of recognizable geographic or historical feature, Federal Way must create an identity for its business district that can align the community around downtown.

The group's initial research sought to uncover the economic demographics of Federal Way.

Through a series of surveys, Ricker and her associate, Bill Cunningham, presented the city council with a cross-section of the residents and businesses in the community. They grouped citizens into one of six "psychographic" categories based on age, median income, housing preference, and extracted the types of products people in these categories typically purchase.

With more than 80,000 consumers in Federal Way, the Leland Group hopes its findings will help local businesses keep those dollars in the city limits by matching consumers with the products local businesses have for sale.

The analysts' findings suggest that, on the whole, a chasm exists between the types of products consumers are willing to buy and those that the downtown retailers offer.

In terms of the city's plans of building a lifestyle center downtown, other figures indicate that Federal Way does not share a similar income profile with the metro areas surrounding University Village in Seattle and Juanita Village in Kirkland.

Federal Way has fewer one- and two-person households-the typical tenants of the condominium-sized units found in lifestyle centers-and generally lower income than the metro area as a whole. The Leland Group determined that Federal Way citizens, on average, were less educated than the metro area in general. But on a positive note, their findings showed that, while income estimates within a five-mile radius of the city center ranked slightly below the metro average, they exceeded those found in the radius of Federal Way's two major retail competitors, the Auburn SuperMall and the Tacoma Mall.

These numbers, Ricker claims, enforce the idea that Federal Way's city center has the potential customer base to thrive, assuming retailers provide the types of goods consumers want to buy.

The research also highlighted the strengths and weakness of the city center in terms of visibility, accessibility and identity.

While the city scored high in the volume of traffic that frequents the intersection of South 320th and Pacific Highway, the analysts considered the interchange with I-5 as a significant barrier to the flow of traffic to stores downtown.

They commented that access between stores downtown confused shoppers with poor interior property access and interrupted street grids in the shopping centers north of 320th.

These businesses also lack visibility, the Leland Group said, from the interstate and the arterial roads through downtown. The construction of the transit center on 317th should improve that visibility, especially for businesses in the immediate vicinity, they said.

The consultants also cited a lack of synergy among downtown business as an obstacle in their findings. Federal Way's downtown lacks a clear design or style, they said, with no clear geographical epicenter.

With its research completed, the Leland Group intends follow up its analysis with detailed list of recommendations for the city council and area businesses.

When the Council accepts those recommendations, Ricker said, they begin the most important step in their downtown revitalization project.

"So far, the Council has remained very receptive to what we've offered in the course of our research," Ricker said, "I think it sends a real message to the business community as to their commitment to this project."

Councilwoman Jeanne Burbidge, a proponent of a pedestrian-friendly city center with a blend of retail center, residences and green spaces, shared her optimism with the Leland Group's initial findings.

"I was pleased with the figures they presented," she said, "I'm excited to receive their suggestions as to the ways we can proceed with this new information."

But Ricker insists accepting the Leland Group suggestions only entails half the work. She sees a clear line of distinction between the communities they have worked with that have put their recommendations into action and those whose drive faded after the market analysis stage.

In order to capitalize on the investment the city has made in the market analysis, Federal Way must join cities like Tacoma, Bellingham and Moses Lake in setting the analysts' information in motion.

"It's imperative that the Council doesn't quit at this stage," Ricker said, "They must do something with that information."

"Once the planning stops, the progress stops," she said.

The Leland Group will officially present its recommendations to Burbidge and the rest of the Council in mid-July.

Ricker said that at this stage in the process, the Council must remain committed to its vision of the city they want Federal Way to become, even if its members don't necessary agree on the means of achieving that goal.

"It's absolutely imperative that the Council becomes aligned on the path they want to take," Ricker said, "Even if they're not completely aligned on the specifics of that path."

If the city hopes to attract the types of investors willing to fund expensive projects like overhauling downtown, Ricker said, "They must remain aligned in their commitment together, even if they don't agree fully on the specifics of that outcome."

"They need to be more committed to that vision than they've ever been before," Ricker said.