Former Moorhead council member to manage city center for entrepreneurship – InForum

MOORHEAD — A former Moorhead City Council member will manage a center for entrepreneurship in the city’s future library and community center.

Through a contract with the city of Moorhead, former council member and entrepreneur Laura Caroon will oversee programming for the Spark Center for Entrepreneurship in

The Loop,

the Moorhead library and community center. Set to open with the library in spring 2026, the entrepreneurship center will be a place where fledgling business owners can access resources, take classes and connect with one another.

Caroon said her role will be to coordinate educational opportunities for the space, working with other business development organizations like the West Central Small Business Development Center and North Dakota Women’s Business Center.

“We’re not recreating the wheel,” Caroon said. “We’re leveraging our community partners and the work that they’re already doing to support entrepreneurs.”

During its Monday, Dec. 8, meeting, the Moorhead City Council approved a $30,000, one-year contract with Caroon’s business, The Luminarie, for entrepreneurial support services. The agreement has an expected time commitment of at least 10 hours per week.

The Spark Center will be on the main floor of The Loop. It will include tables and desks for entrepreneurs to work at, along with meeting and focus rooms. One room will be set up with podcasting equipment, Caroon said.

Contributed / City of Moorhead

Construction of the center is funded by a $1 million federal grant. In total, the library project costs

$41.5 million,

primarily funded by a

voter-approved

sales tax.

Classes and resources offered in the Spark Center will focus on marketing, sales, customer service, taxes and artificial intelligence, Caroon said. Entrepreneurs will be able to go to lunch-and-learn sessions or meet with business experts during “office hours,” she said.

Caroon was a cofounder of

Ladyboss,

an organization to connect and empower women. Entrepreneurship and supporting women business owners were big parts of the venture, Caroon said.

“This is kind of a fun extension,” she said of the Spark Center. “It’s not just supporting women, but really supporting new business owners, people who are just getting started or interested in what starting a business might look like for them, people who are maybe new to the area and don’t have a lot of connections yet, people who are starting main street businesses.”

Moorhead Economic Development Program Administrator Amy Thorpe said Caroon brings creativity, passion and a network of collaborators to the Spark Center. Caroon already has relationships with library staff, the Small Business Development Center and others in the community, Thorpe said.

“She has the ability to work with and collaborate with all sorts of people,” Thorpe said.

As a City Council member, Caroon was involved with the library-community center project since its inception. She was on the mayor’s task force to plan the project and worked on the campaign to promote the sales tax to fund the building. Caroon also served on the Moorhead Library Board and Lake Agassiz Regional Library Board.

Caroon said she initially questioned if people would think it was weird she was taking on the Spark Center role after serving on the council but decided she was the right person for the project at this time.

“All of those pieces and relationships that I have in the community, they just … I believe will serve the project well,” Caroon said.

Thorpe said Caroon’s role in the project naturally evolved, and that Caroon has a specific skill set needed for the role.

“It’s really sort of a niche skill and skill set she brings that would be hard to RFP for,” Thorpe said, referring to a “request for proposal” process that public entities often use to find contractors.

Caroon said the success of the Spark Center will be measured by having people use the space and attend events at the center. The ultimate goal is for new businesses to start in Moorhead.

“That’ll be something that will be fun to see happen over the next handful of years, is how many people are able to take the resources and experiences and knowledge that they learn here and the connections that they build and help them start or grow their businesses in Moorhead,” Caroon said.