APPLETON, Wis. — Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has a big vision for redevelopment on its nearly 600-acre Appleton location.
“We envision a community with a mix of uses, including parks and trails as well as offices, retail, housing and hospitality,” said Eric Merriman, the director of real estate and workplace services with Thrivent. “We think it could really be a one-of-a-kind environment that enhances the quality of life for all the residents here.”
The project is known as Wilden Portfolio Park. Work on the development is planned to happen in phases over a number of years.
“We found in our market research that there’s a very large need for the full range of housing types in the area,” Merriman said. “When we did community engagement, that’s another thing we heard from folks is a desire for more housing of all types. We think this will meet a good chunk of that need.”
The plan includes the potential for a new operations center for the business and a park.
Kara Homen, Appleton’s director of community development, said this is a unique project for both the city and the immediate region.
She said proposed development includes a mix of housing types ranging from apartments to townhomes and duplexes, to single-family homes.
“Once it’s built out, we’re estimating there will be somewhere around 2,200 housing units, give or take,” Homan said. “We know that the city needs to be creating at least 300 housing units a year just to keep up with demand.”
The city has approved the zoning for the project. It is now working with developers on the first phases of planning.
“You might start to see some infrastructure work happening later this year or early next year if everything goes as planned,” Homan said. “To build everything out, it’s going to occur in phases. You’ll start seeing things in the next year or so.”
Merriman said this is a long-term project.
“We’re starting to talk to developers now about their ideas for projects and evaluating those ideas and finding what fits best so we can realize the vision of the master plan,” he said. “That could take many, many years, perhaps even decades, to develop the whole site.”
