Minneapolis is soon to be home to a new innovation center. It’s a marriage between CoCo and Project Skyway. I’ve written about CoCo before; it’s a coworking center in the Twin Cities. Project Skyway is “Minnesota’s first tech accelerator program for motivated entrepreneurs.” I don’t feel like I know a ton about them – except that I’ve met some bright bulbs who have been involved with the Project Skyway. Well the news from their press release is that they are working together to create opportunities…

CoCo and Project Skyway have teamed up and will be launching their combined innovation center on the historic Trading Floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.

It’s a beautiful location. It sounds like a great place to locate a new, budding business or even just to hang out to get (or implement) some good ideas. Here are some of the details…

• CoCo Minneapolis opens on July 5.
• Project Skyway is choosing 25 companies to go through a bootcamp weekend on June 10-12 that will be hosted by CoCo at its St. Paul location.
• Project Skyway will select 10 companies from these 25 to participate in its inaugural three month class beginning in August at the new Minneapolis CoCo location.
• The Grain Exchange will be the second location for CoCo.
• CoCo opened its first location in Lowertown St. Paul in January 2010.
• CoCo bills itself as an alternative to working from home or the coffee shop, attracting freelancers, entrepreneurs, consultants and home-office workers.
• CoCo is part of the global coworking movement. With more than 700 coworking spaces in the U.S., coworking is growing at more than 100% per year.

Maybe it will provide a model that smaller towns can replicate and/or be akin to a day spa that rural business owners can visit to get rejuvenated to perk up their businesses at home.