Olympia area moves up to 8th on Forbes business list

by Jim Szymanski | The Olympian • Published March 19, 2008

OLYMPIA - The Olympia area has moved up to eighth place nationally on Forbes magazine’s best places to do business list.

South Sound was ranked 10th on last year’s list.

The magazine ranks cities based on factors including job and population growth, crime rates, the cost of living and doing business, educational attainment and cultural and leisure opportunities.

The other cities, ranked in order besides Olympia are Raleigh, North Carolina; Boise, Idaho; Fort Collins, Colo.; Des Moines, Iowa; Lexington, Ky,; Atlanta, Ga.; Richmond, Va.; Spokane and Knoxville, Tenn.

“Boy, that speaks well for us,” said Mike Edwards, a board member of the Economic Development Council of Thurston County. “It’s certainly an attractant to our area, especially in relation to Seattle and Tacoma.”

Edwards noted the recent arrivals of a Cabela’s outdoor gear store in Lacey and this week’s opening of Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound as new job creators. Those developments will boost the county’s growing tourism business, he said.

Both developments will serve as magnets for further development, Edwards said.

For more on this story, see Thursday's Olympian.