By Joe Wilson
A major project in St. Louis got some positive press this week . The Brookings Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based progressive think tank, issued a report titled “The Rise of Innovation Districts: A New Geography of Innovation in America.” The report is, of course, speaking about Cortex, the high-tech innovation center that has slowly risen above Highway 40 between Vandeventer and Kingshighway.
The report describes the difference between research parks, which house companies in relatively isolated ways, and innovation centers, which try to build density and increase the collaboration among entities and individuals in the area. St. Louis is placed alongside such major world cities as Berlin, London, Seoul, and Stockholm, and among American cities including Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, and San Diego.
A separate interview with one of the report’s authors again mentions our very own Cortex alongside the likes of the Cambridge Innovation Center and the Eindhoven in Holland. These are projects that use the design of the innovation center to help spur serendipitous meetings between those making use of the available resources, in order to encourage the collaborative creation of new ideas. Hopefully, those new ideas mean a growing economy for the region as well.
Part of Better Together’s economic development report is focused on the use of tax increment financing. Much has been made of the irresponsible use of this economic development tool, but Cortex is one example of a “good TIF.” Using TIF to encourage the expansion of the next-generation economy here in our region could mean growth in an area that needs it quite desperately. Not every TIF is used well, but hopefully over time, it will play out that the TIF for the Cortex facility will be worth a great deal more than the TIF provided for it.
Current Study: General Administration