Grove was not immediately available for comment.
When the Itasca Project launched, there was a sense the Twin Cities’ economic development strategy had historically been about “stealing companies from the other side of the river, and that needed to change,” said Itasca Project co-founder Jay Cowles.
The Itasca Project connected business leaders with their peers in other sectors, said Cowles, whose family owned the Star Tribune from 1935-98. He added the project imbued participants with the belief that “the issues of the Twin Cities were larger than any one sector could grapple with alone” and required “alignment among multiple parties in order to drive effective action.”
In the decades since, the number of organizations doing that kind of regional work has multiplied. In interviews, current and former Itasca Project leaders pointed to Greater MSP and the GroundBreak Coalition, an organization working to close racial wealth gaps, as key to taking on the kinds of efforts the Itasca Project tackled.
“There’s no end of work, but the good news is that there’s no end of organizations, more than ever, that are committed to these kinds of socioeconomic issues,” said former Itasca Project Chair Lynn Casey. “I think the challenge will be to make sure that they know they don’t have to go it alone, and that they work together, and that they use their power to really make change.”
In the immediate term, Greater MSP is taking on the Itasca Project’s Minnesota and national Young American Leaders Programs, a partnership with the University of Minnesota and Harvard Business School.
