Federal Way, the suburban city known mostly for its mall, just made its long-running effort to create a downtown out of nothing official: The City Council has approved selling 4.1 acres to Vancouver, B.C.-based United Properties for $6.1 million to build a massive mixed-use complex on a four-acre parcel. The proposal includes four multi-story towers with retail and offices. A one-acre public park will dot the site.

Plans call for the $250 million project, dubbed "Symphony," to be completed in March 2014. More about the details of the project, including arguments over United Properties' past projects, here.

I included Federal Way in my story about how cities across Washington state are bringing back downtowns and Main Streets. And the new news out of Federal Way reminds me of an analysis by the Global Real Estate Monitor which points out that the drive to create or rejuvenate town cores really is happening all over the United States, not to mention the world. The Monitor highlights efforts in Spokane, Phoenix, Ariz., and Chattanooga, Tenn., to breathe new life into an old concept: the town center as the place to do business.

The Monitor points out that town centers have been dying for a while with "62 percent of all major city population growth in the 1990s" occuring "along suburban borders, compared to just 11 percent in city cores."

The Monitor also points out that many cities are reversing that trend by embracing three main strategies: "create an organization to bring together business leaders and city officials; design a master plan to encourage investment; and develop a way to leverage any special attractions in the downtown core."

Jim Bowen, vice president of the RiverCity Company, a private nonprofit that focuses on downtown Chattanooga's redevelopment, puts it best when he tells the Monitor: "Downtown is the signature of your community, and when people visit your city, the downtown is what leaves a lasting impression. If it's boarded up like a ghost town, they don't have a good opinion. It makes sense to revitalize your urban core because it's important to the economy and the future of your city."