Iowa’s West Coast Initiative
Iowa's West Coast Initiative (IWCI) is a collaboration between the economic development organizations in Plymouth, Monona, and Woodbury counties. These organizations include the City of Sioux City, Siouxland Interstate Metropolitan Planning Council, The Siouxland Initiative, Siouxland Economic Development Corporation, City of LeMars, Woodbury County and Monona County. The goal of IWCI is to build a strong, vibrant, and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem in the tri-state region. IWCI encourages innovation and entrepreneurial activity by providing business and technical assistance, offering networking opportunities and facilitating access to capital for entrepreneurs. The organization strives to create a culture where entrepreneurs have access to the resources they need to advance their business at a faster pace, with an end goal of becoming more successful and creating more jobs and wealth in the region.
Learn more about Iowa’s West Coast Initiative and all of the resources and events available to help start or grow a business - https://iawestcoast.com/
Startup Resources
Iowa’s West Coast Initiative is building the culture entrepreneurs need to succeed by hosting networking events for entrepreneurs to make key connections, organizing business idea competitions for a chance to win startup capital, providing specialized educational programs and technical assistance, and identifying new resources and programs to bring to the region. IWCI has developed strong relationships with many organizations both locally and across the state and has been a catalyst in bringing new resources to the region to benefit our local entrepreneurs.
List RESOURCES and EVENTS – little boxes on iowawestcoast
Location Meets Innovation
To continue building on its successful efforts, IWCI is planning the acquisition and renovation of a building in downtown Sioux City into the Innovation Center. The Innovation Center will provide a physical location that brings people together to advance business ideas and innovation through a combination of increased services including mentorship, networking opportunities, hands-on training, business support services, educational opportunities, and access to equipment.
The Innovation Center will allow IWCI to expand the services and programming it is able to offer, as well as serve a larger population of entrepreneurs and business startups throughout the region. While the Innovation Center will be located in Sioux City, it will serve a much wider population including but not limited to the counties of Woodbury, Plymouth and Monona in Iowa, Dakota County in Nebraska and Union County in South Dakota.
The Innovation Center will be the new home for IWCI, serving as a hub for entrepreneurial activity and providing entrepreneurs with access to services, resources, and programming to help commercialize emerging technologies and support business growth in the region.
A food hall will be located on the first floor of the building and provide a lively environment within the Innovation Center and showcase the unique cuisine that the region has to offer. The food hall will provide an opportunity for aspiring restaurant-preneurs to start their business with a low-cost to entry, as well as attract people to the Innovation Center to see all that the space has to offer and stimulate interest in entrepreneurship. Once the restaurant-preneurs have developed a loyal customer base, they will be able to venture out on their own and IWCI will assist them in identifying a space to locate.
The second floor of the building will include a tech lab with equipment for startups to prototype ideas and entrepreneurs interested in software development, coding, robotics and automation. Existing industry will be able to utilize the equipment to upskill workforce. The Innovation Center will also build on our regional agricultural strength by supporting food innovation through a shared commercial kitchen for entrepreneurs interested in product development and food-based businesses. The second floor will also include space to host workshops, trainings and events.
The third floor of the Innovation Center will include additional amenities such as business coworking and rentable offices and conference rooms. The local NPR station, Siouxland Public Media, will co-locate in the facility. It has been the station’s goal to find a location in downtown Sioux City, and the Innovation Center provides the accessibility it needs. The presence of Siouxland Public Media within the building will allow the station to be more integrated into the community, will raise the profile of both the station and the Innovation Center on a regional level, and will allow the station to develop programming around the entrepreneurs and activities in the building. Siouxland Public Media will have offices on the third floor of the building, but more importantly, it will have a visible broadcasting studio and shared recording booths on the first floor of the building, visible for all to see as they enter the building.
The Innovation Center will also be a catalyst for the creation of an "Arts and Innovation District." An adjacent property is planned to be redeveloped into LAMB Theatre’s Performing Arts Center, nearby historic properties are undergoing mixed-use renovations, Pearl Street Park and LaunchPAD Children’s Museum are adjacent, and additional sites in the area will soon become available for redevelopment projects.
[RENDERINGS & FLOOR CONCEPTS located in Google Drive under content/Provided by the EDC]
Co-Working Spaces
Coworking spaces are community centers, collaboration hubs, and social spaces where workers from different backgrounds can come together to work, share expertise and explore new ideas.
o Springboard Coworking Logo - https://www.springboardcoworking.com/
o Nucleus Logo - https://hochunkcentre.com/nucleus.html