MINNEAPOLIS—JLL recently issued its 2015 Global Life Sciences Cluster Report and for the US, among the top 10 rated regions was Minneapolis-St. Paul, the only metro area from the Midwest to score so high. A total of 44,016 people in the metro area work in the life sciences industry, JLL found, or about 3.0% of the total workforce.

“We have a very robust talent pool,” Brian K. Ginkel, managing director at JLL in Minneapolis, tells GlobeSt.com, “much of it due to the presence of St. Jude Medical, and Medtronic Inc.,” two global medical device manufacturers with primary operations here that “really drive the start-up community.”

“We've seen an uptick in the number of smaller start-ups,” he adds, much of this increased activity driven by the metro region's strong collection of venture capital firms. TreeHouse Health, a Minneapolis-based incubator, for example, was founded by a former UnitedHealthGroup Inc. executive in 2013 and now provides both funding and office space for promising new firms. Start-ups also get a chance to share offices with established players such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and the Hennepin County Medical Center, which act as anchor tenants in TreeHouse's 13,000 square foot space. “It's a strong community backed by two influential organizations; a number of companies are starting to hit the ground running.”