Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Breaks Ground on $80 Million Evergreen Operations Center in Appleton

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has broken ground on the Evergreen Operations Center, a four-story, 155,000-square-foot office building at 1505 E. Evergreen Drive in Appleton, Wisconsin. Construction began Sept. 8, 2026, with a ceremonial groundbreaking held Sept. 23 attended by Thrivent executives, Appleton's mayor, city officials, project partners and employees. The project represents an approximately $80 million investment and is expected to open in spring 2028.

Project Details and Design

The Evergreen Operations Center is designed to support Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' approximately 1,400 Appleton-area employees through flexible spaces intended for hybrid, remote and on-site work arrangements. The building will provide areas for collaboration, focused work and employee connection, reflecting a workplace strategy oriented around flexible work rather than a traditional large-scale office footprint.

The new building is expected to replace Thrivent's existing operations center at 4321 N. Ballard Road, a facility of approximately 680,000 square feet — substantially larger than the planned replacement. Thrivent has been considering alternative future uses for the Ballard Road property, including office or civic purposes, though no firm plans have been announced.

Thrivent is pursuing the project through North Meadows Investment Ltd., a Thrivent subsidiary.

"Appleton has been central to Thrivent's story for generations, making this an especially meaningful milestone for our organization," said Paul Johnston, Thrivent's Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel and Secretary. "Today's groundbreaking reflects years of collaboration with community partners and marks an important step forward for the Appleton property. It's gratifying to see that vision become reality as construction begins on the Evergreen Operations Center."

First Phase of Wilden Portfolio Park

The Evergreen Operations Center is the first significant vertical development within Wilden Portfolio Park, a roughly 580-acre mixed-use redevelopment on Appleton's north side, west of Interstate 41. The long-term plan for the park encompasses housing, commercial uses, public spaces and community amenities, developed in coordination with the City of Appleton and shaped through community input.

The first phase covers approximately 250 to 262 acres and includes horizontal infrastructure work and 14 mixed-use lots. A subdivision agreement identified roughly $40 million in infrastructure costs, covering roads, utilities, bridges, sidewalks, streetlights and trails. The broader Wilden Portfolio Park buildout is planned in phases over many years, with the north half of the site addressed in a later phase.

Over time, the development is expected to include approximately 2,200 to 2,300 housing units — spanning single-family homes, townhomes and apartments — as well as commercial uses such as grocery stores, restaurants, retail, hotels and additional office space. The plan also calls for more than 150 acres of green space and approximately six miles of walking trails.

Appleton officials approved development support and agreements tied to infrastructure work beginning in September 2026, providing the framework needed for the first building to proceed.

Commercial Real Estate Context

The Evergreen Operations Center represents owner-occupier office demand at a moment when corporate real estate decisions are increasingly driven by workplace redesign, employee retention and operational efficiency. At 155,000 square feet, the building is a significant corporate office project for the Appleton market, though it constitutes only one component of the broader Wilden Portfolio Park master plan.

The project's structure — combining coordinated public infrastructure investment with a private corporate anchor — illustrates a public-private development model in which the timing of subsequent residential and commercial phases depends partly on the pace of infrastructure delivery. Future phases of Wilden could add substantial housing, retail, hospitality and office capacity to the Appleton market, though public materials do not establish firm delivery dates, financing commitments or signed tenants for those components.

Separately, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' potential repositioning or reuse of the approximately 680,000-square-foot Ballard Road campus could affect Appleton's future office inventory and create a distinct redevelopment or adaptive-reuse opportunity in the market.

Thrivent is a Fortune 500 financial services company with more than 2.4 million clients and more than $212 billion in assets under management and advisement as of Dec. 31, 2025. For ongoing updates on the Wilden Portfolio Park development, Thrivent has directed the public to wildenportfoliopark.com.

Sources

Thrivent Newsroom — Thrivent Breaks Ground on New Appleton Building (Sept. 23, 2026)