Boise downtown developer Mark Rivers is a believer in what author Richard Florida calls the creative economy ands he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is.

Today Rivers officially opens “The Watercooler,” a business development center in downtown Boise aimed at helping small start-up companies started by Florida’s “creative class,” young, highly educated, professionals, engineers, entrepreneurs, artists and business executives. These people are increasingly responsible for economic growth worldwide. Florida ranked Boise 9th in the United States for attracting creative people in his “The Rise of the Creative Class.”

Rivers, the developer of BoDo, came up with the idea of the WaterCooler, (and most of its funding) as a place in downtown Boise for emerging companies who can get help and synergy from similar local companies along with venture capital. The WaterCooler, located at 1401 W. Idaho Street, also will host workshops and speakers for the entire community.

River’s brainstorm is exactly the kind of project Florida talks about. The day it opens it’s already nearly full and has a waiting list.

I traded e-mails with Nic Lees, one of the founders of New Zealand software company CropLogic, which has developed programs to help potato farmers maximize their productivity. Boise’s creative class, Rivers’ WateCooler and Idaho’s potatoes convinced he and his partners to set up shop in Boise.

Other occupants include; Ming Solar, a start-up with unique solar-powered lighting patents, BookLamp, which has a web system to marry readers to books of similar writing styles, and OKOS Solutions, a data acquisition partner of the Idaho National Laboratory.

Creativity has always been the top resource of the American economy. Florida has identified the type of people in this era that have especially exhibited it but people like Potato king J.R. Simplot, builder Harry Morrison and Walter Zinn, who led Argonne National Laboratory’s nuclear research at the Idaho National Laboratory in the 1950s all share creative attributes.

“Boise has a tremendous legacy of innovation and an emerging legion of ‘idea-preneurs’ that need the support and the stimulus that the WaterCooler can provide,” Rivers said.

If Florida and Rivers are right we are going to see more creative ideas turned into who-knows-what to make Boise and the Treasure Valley a better place to live and work.