The MetroWest real estate market faces many challenges, but the cities and towns of the region have their destiny in their own hands, according to presenters who spoke today at an economic development forum sponsored by the 495/MetroWest Partnership.

Barry Bluestone, a professor of public policy at Northeastern and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, discussed a new study focusing on Massachusetts’ cities and towns that examines the factors that most contribute to a city’s successful economic development.

Preliminary data from the Bay State’s 12 Gateway Cities suggests that the most important factors may not be the ones people usually look at.While tax incentive programs and crime rates appeared to have little impact on economic growth, fast-track permitting, lower tax rates, school quality and highway access all seemed to contribute significantly to which cities were successful in attracting new businesses. When it came to growing the number of jobs in a city, how successfully the city sells itself as a desirable location to employers was the second-most important factor, Bluestone said.

Bluestone plans to further expand the survey to cover 50 Massachusetts cities. However, he suggested, even these preliminary results should put cities on notice that "local communities can control their own destiny" when it comes to attracting growth.

Despite the relatively robust growth in leasing seen in the Greater Boston market over the past few years, MetroWest may have a few areas where it could use a boost. Chris Tosti, an executive vice president at CB Richard Ellis, gave attendees a brief overview of the state of the region’s commercial real estate market. While absorption rates are up and vacancies are down, with landmark deals over the past few years, Tosti said some of the large companies he’s worked with still find it difficult to find desirable space. Avery Dennison, a large company with a long history in Framingham, recently opted to move its operations elsewhere, despite the company’s desire to stay in the city, because it simply couldn’t find the kind of modern, high-tech, Class A space in the city that its workforce demands.

"A lot of the properties we describe as Class A in MetroWest were built in the 1980s," said Totsi, and for high-tech companies seeking to attract young workers with campus-like environments, such spaces are out of date.

All the panelists-and a number of the audience members -were concerned about the region’s ability to attract more Millenials, who seem to prefer urban, carless lifestyles with lots of readily available amenities.