Former insurance company headquarters in Ashwaubenon sold. Coffee, pickleball coming?

As seen in Greenbay Press Gazette

Former insurance company headquarters in Ashwaubenon sold. Coffee, pickleball coming?

ASHWAUBENON — A 145,000-square-foot office building in Ashwaubenon, home for more than two decades to an insurance company, will soon be redeveloped into space for a cafe, pickleball courts and several more businesses. 

Park Place Holdings, a De Pere-based commercial development firm, in late January purchased 3500 Packerland Drive, a 26.8-acre, two parcel site. The building was most recently home to Connect, a subsidiary of Madison-based American Family Insurance, who leased the space. Details of the transaction were not available.

You might know Connect by a string of previous names that date back to its founding in the 1970s: Wisconsin No Fault, Wisconsin Employer’s Group, American Express Property Casualty Cos., Ameriprise Home & Auto Insurance, IDS Property Casualty Insurance Co. and Ameriprise Home & Auto Insurance.

Since 1987, when the business underwent a major revamp, it steadily grew from a handful of employees into one of the larger employers in Brown County. At its peak, the company employed more than 1,700 people locally, many of them based out of the purpose-built headquarters on Packerland Drive which opened in 2000.

‘A blank canvas’ for Green Bay area businesses

The former Connect building’s sale and redevelopment adds another headquarters campus to the region’s list of sprawling commercial sites undergoing transformations. Other headquarters sites in various stages for redevelopment include the Humana campus in De Pere, the AMS/UnitedHealth Group campus in Howard, and the Wisconsin Public Service Corp. headquarters in downtown Green Bay.

With the Connect building, Park Place plans to break the space up into smaller areas a variety of commercial and retail businesses will lease. The purchase price, plus the opportunity to bring together a mix of uses that would support each other and draw the public into the building, spurred Park Place’s interest in the site, said CEO Caleb Hayes. 

“We’re already negotiating with six or seven potential tenants for spaces,” Hayes said. “We can break it down to exactly what they need. Right now, it’s a blank canvas and we’re painting whatever the businesses need for their space.”

The intent is to activate the building with a mix of traditional office tenants such as a cafe and a fitness center featuring a sauna and pickleball courts, as well as more traditional office tenants. In addition to the businesses Park Place hopes to attract, Hayes said the property’s on-site amenities like a walking path and fenced-in courtyard have helped generate interest.

“I can’t believe the variety of tenants who reached out about that building. It’s going to be a really cool place where a lot of the stuff you typically do throughout your day, you can get done right in the building,” Hayes said. 

Packerland Drive purchase includes additional land to further develop in Ashwaubenon

Hayes said the nearly 27-acre site includes a 7.8-acre parcel north of the office building that offers Park Place the chance to further develop the site. Park Place Holdings is focused on leasing the existing space right now, but said it’s always ready to listen to ideas for the vacant land, too.

“All the options for future development we can do with that extra land, it’s all a bonus,” Hayes said. “If anyone wants to reach out with ideas for the land, we’d welcome those conversations.”

Original vision for Ashwaubenon site was four-building, $40 million campus for the company then known as American Express or IDS

According to Press-Gazette archive reports, American Express in 1987 renamed the home and auto insurance portion of the former Fireman’s Fund as IDS Property Casualty Insurance Co. The business would also be known as American Express Property Casualty Cos.

The company logged about $1.5 million in sales in 1987 and employed a handful of people. But it grew quickly over the next decade and its 450 employees filled office spaces at 333 Main St., then called Regency Center, and at 1400 Lombardi Ave. by the late 1990s. IDS projected it would have as many as 2,000 employees by 2003 and needed more space.

American Express, IDS’ parent company, in December 1998 announced plans to build a $40 million campus on the 27-acre Packerland Drive site. The project would be the first development in the new Ashwaubenon Business Centre area along Packerland Drive. The company’s original $40 million plan called for four buildings of 115,000, 60,000, 90,000 and 90,000 square feet which would offer room for its projected employment growth.

The 2000s and 2010s, two name changes, a spin-off and a sale

IDS continued to grow into the 2000s and revenues topped $7 billion by 2005 when American Express decided to re-name and spin off the insurance business.

In August 2005, American Express announced the company would be renamed Ameriprise Home & Auto and would be owned by Ameriprise Financial Inc., a new publicly owned company wholly owned by American Express stockholders at first.

Ameriprise continued to operate out of the Packerland Drive headquarters for another 14 years before a Wisconsin-based competitor came calling.

American Family Insurance in April 2019 announced it would acquire Ameriprise Home & Auto for a little more than $1.1 billion. The acquisition was completed in October and by August 2020, American Family Insurance announced it would rebrand the business as Connect, powered by American Family Insurance.

COVID-19 pandemic’s shift to remote work and consolidation leads to office closure

Connect would continue to operate through the COVID-19 pandemic but, like many employers, shifted its office workforce to remote work.

Ultimately, American Family made the decision to close the Connect office in Ashwaubenon toward the end of 2023 to give it time to vacate the space before its lease expired in December 2024.

But while the office operation is gone, Connect still employs about 700 people in the Green Bay area, American Family Insurance told the Press-Gazette.

History and timeline of IDS Property Casualty’s growth, expansion, name changes and departure from its Packerland Drive headquarters

• 1972: Wisconsin No Fault insurance company is founded and, in the mid-70s, renamed Wisconsin Employer’s Group licensed to sell auto, home and farm insurance through independent agents.
• 1982: American Express purchases Wisconsin Employer’s Group.
• 1986: American Express begins building a company to provide home and auto insurance to card members and clients.
• 1987: American Express sells off the health insurance portion of Fireman’s Fund and combines the casualty insurance portion of that business with IDS Financial Services to form IDS Property Casualty Insurance Co. Sales are $1.7 million in the first year. 
• 1990: IDS sales projected at $20 million.December 1998: IDS announces a four-building, $40 million office complex for the company’s 450 employees. The complex, as envisioned, would have space for the company’s projected growth up to 2,000 employees.2000: IDS completes new, corporate headquarters at 3500 Packerland Drive in Ashwaubenon. 2005: IDS is renamed Ameriprise Home & Auto Insurance as American Express spins off the business as Ameriprise Financial Inc., an independent, publicly owned company. The company employs about 970 people and generated about $7 billion in revenue.October 2019: American Family Insurance buys Ameriprise Home & Auto Insurance from Ameriprise Financial for $1.1 billion. The company has an estimated 1,700 employees. 2020: American Family rebrands Ameriprise business as Connect, powered by American Family Insurance. Late 2023: Connect closes its Packerland Drive office ahead of its lease expiring.2025: Park Place Holdings purchases the former headquarters building at 3500 Packerland Drive. Connect still employs about 700 people in the Green Bay area.