Still innovating

The Gazette Editorial Board

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The Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce is giving up a federal grant, but not its ambition to create an innovation center to help boost businesses in the region. We think the group made the right call.

The Chamber has terminated an agreement with the Federal Economic Development Administration to provide a $3 million grant for a $6 million, 30,000-square-foot facility in downtown Cedar Rapids. It was a difficult decision, but after months of researching development efforts in cities across the nation, the local Chamber concluded that a large, brick-and-mortar approach to fostering innovation was not the best option for the region. And it wasn't the best use of taxpayer dollars.

Since the flood, it's become clear that fresh approaches are needed to push the Cedar Rapids area beyond slow recovery and into sustained future growth. The drive to craft that new strategy continues, and Chamber leaders still believe an innovation center will be part of the plan. What shape that center takes, whether physical, virtual or a mixture, is still being determined. The fact-finding process that led away from plan A may now lead to a better option.

Giving up the grant is a sign that development leaders are more interested in finding a strategy that works than cutting the ribbon on a shiny new building.

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