He built the biggest project in Downtown Boise in many years. Now BoDo developer Mark Rivers has turned his attention - some of it, anyway - to give other entrepreneurs a place to do business. In mid-April, Rivers will open the Boise WaterCooler in the former Boise Heating & Cooling building on the corner of 14th and Idaho streets.

He built the biggest project in Downtown Boise in many years. Now BoDo developer Mark Rivers has turned his attention - some of it, anyway - to give other entrepreneurs a place to do business.

In mid-April, Rivers will open the Boise WaterCooler in the former Boise Heating & Cooling building on the corner of 14th and Idaho streets.

The Boise Heating & Cooling building was vacant for a decade before Rivers arranged to lease it from the Capital City Development Corp., Boise's urban-renewal agency. He's paying for improvements with $100,000 of his own money and $40,000 from CCDC.

To raise more money, Rivers has formed a board of directors and launched a fundraising campaign that has netted an additional $50,000 so far. Rivers said the WaterCooler organization has applied for nonprofit status.

Rivers said the WaterCooler has room for eight small businesses, additional cubicle space for more than 15 people, and space for training and meetings. He said the name refers to people in the business world meeting informally around a water cooler and exchanging ideas.

"Plus, I'm hoping it will be 'cool' destination," Rivers said.

He sees it as a business development center to provide services to Boise's emerging companies.

"Our economic strategy should be focused on a priority to grow existing businesses," he said. "In two or four or five years, with the right help, we can have companies that employ 40 to 50 people."

The WaterCooler would give young companies an affordable place to set up shop and access to expertise. It will be home to Idaho TechConnect, which helps companies secure grants and investor financing, and Boise State University's Centre for Creativity, which studies how creativity impacts economic development.

Rivers cites the business software maker ProClarity, which was bought by Microsoft two years ago, as an example of what can happen when small companies have the chance to stay in Boise and grow.

Rivers said the WaterCooler will target companies in creative industries like software development, multimedia filmmaking, green technologies, communication and marketing.

One of the first companies signed up is CropLogic, a result of a New Zealand government-funded research program.

CropLogic has developed a software program called the Potato Calculator that helps potato farmers monitor growing conditions and better manage the use of water, fertilizer and pesticides.

Nic Lees, an investment manager at CropLogic, said the company is moving to Idaho because many of its first customers are here and Boise's growing software industry attracted him.

Lees said Boise is similar to Christchurch, New Zealand, where the company is now. Christchurch is hub of much of the country's software industry. He was attracted to the WaterCooler because of resources it would provide.

"We're growing a new business, and we're going to need a lot of help," Lees said.

The WaterCooler would be the Valley's second center devoted to helping early-stage companies.

The first was BSU's Technical and Entrepreneurial Center, which opened in 2003 near the Idaho Center in Nampa. The BSU center helps perfect business plans, helps startups find capital, and offers other services.

"I think it's a great idea," said John Glerum, the center's director. "We're far from being saturated with incubators around here."

The BSU center is working with more than 30 companies, providing space and business assistance. Glerum said he hears from three to five new companies a month looking for help. He said the Nampa center is mostly full.

John Hale, a managing partner at the Boise KPMG office, serves on the WaterCooler board. The WaterCooler will help fill a void in Boise, he said.

"We don't have a gathering place for the creative juices to come together," Hale said.

Hale agrees with Rivers that Boise's economic development efforts must focus on small companies.

"Our economy is going to be dependent on micro companies - hundreds of them - that create economic clusters that feed off each other," he said.

Centers like the WaterCooler can attract growing companies from other regions, too, he said.

"If you're some guy in Seattle with a small software company and could cut your costs in half and be right Downtown with a five-minute commute, that would be attractive and we wouldn't have to go out and knock on their door," he said.

Hale hopes the WaterCooler is just a beginning.

"If this is successful, we would envision several buildings around town," Hale said.

For Rivers, the WaterCooler is the solution for the nonstop planning about what Boise should do to help grow its creative companies.

"I said 'Enough is enough, this is a good idea, so let's get our hands dirty and see how it goes,'" he said. "I see this as the cornerstone in the effort to move Boise closer to becoming an innovative city."

This article was written by Ken Dey of the Idaho Statesman - kdey@idahostatesman.com