ICAD, Economic Alliance form venture

Economic development organizations at each end of the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor have formed a joint venture to provide a common regional focus on workforce and business recruitment.

The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance and the Iowa City Area Development Group established the legal entity, a 501(c)(6) organization with a small governance board, on Jan. 1.

A neutral executive director will be hired from outside the Economic Alliance and ICAD.

Lydia Brown, chairwoman of the Metro Economic Alliance, said the joint venture formalizes a decades-old economic development collaboration.

'A lot of this work has already been done without a formal agreement,” Brown said. 'This legal entity allows us to go out and officially market our region the way we've been doing it informally for a long time.

'There has been a lot of desire over the years to get this formalized. It is truly a statement of connectivity and collaboration.”

Brown said the joint venture does not represent a relaunch of the 'Iowa's Creative Corrodor” brand that was unveiled in April 2013.

'While it will certainly use that brand messaging, it will really be a focused effort on two areas of particular concern as it relates to the economic vitality of the region,” she said. 'We need to attract new people to the region, especially when you look at our growth-oriented companies. We also need to market the region to companies that are not already located here.'

Tom Goedken, chairman of the ICAD board of directors, said the organizations have been moving toward forming a joint venture for almost two years.

'When you don't have a formal agreement, you sometimes become myopic and focus on your own strategy,” Goedken said. 'Then, when it's time to collaborate, it's ‘Oh yeah. We have to do that.'

'In our discussions, we came to the conclusion that collaboration has to be kept front and center at all times.”

Dee Baird, president and CEO of the Metro Economic Alliance, said in an email to her organization's members that all the details of the joint venture have not been finalized. Baird said it will be up to the boards of both organizations to make those decisions in the coming months.