Associated Bank might build new HQ in downtown Green Bay

Ashwaubenon-based Associated Banc-Corp, the holding company for Associated Bank, has considered plans in recent months to build a new corporate headquarters in downtown Green Bay, according to a Milwaukee commercial real estate source.

“We’ve heard the same rumor,” said Tom Fisk, a commercial real estate broker for Grubb & Ellis Pfefferle‘s Green Bay office. “The whole thing has been very low key. Even the people we know that would be in the know have been very tight lipped.”

Associated Bank spokesperson Autumn Latimore said that the bank currently has no plans to move or consolidate any of its operations in Green Bay. As part of its ongoing business practices, the bank routinely examines and scrutinizes its operations to determine if the proper operations are staged in the right areas, she said. Part of that process includes looking at what properties are available. However, any move to a new consolidated headquarters would be “years from now,” she said.

Associated Bank has a significant presence in downtown Milwaukee and about two years ago was considering plans to move its corporate headquarters to downtown Milwaukee when Lisa Binder was the company’s president and worked in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee commercial real estate source said. In 2009 Binder left the company and then Philip Flynn was hired as president and chief executive officer. Flynn works at the company’s Ashwaubenon headquarters. After Flynn was hired, the company’s plans for a new headquarters shifted to Green Bay, the Milwaukee commercial real estate source said.

Associated Banc-Corp’s headquarters is currently located in a 32,000-square-foot building at 1200 Hansen Road in Ashwaubenon. The company has about two years left on its lease there, Fisk said. The building is currently listed for sale, with an asking price of $4.5 million.

Associated Bank also has offices and operations in several other locations scattered around the Green Bay area, Fisk said. The company would like to consolidate its Green Bay operations into a single location and has considered plans to build a new corporate headquarters at several sites in downtown Green Bay, most on or near the Fox River, the Milwaukee commercial real estate source said.

The building would be “at least a couple hundred thousand square feet” in size, the source said.

Once the acquisition of Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp. by Toronto-based BMO Financial Group is complete, Associated Bank will be the largest bank based in Wisconsin.

Jennifer Pollitt, chief of staff for the mayor of Green Bay James Schmitt, said the city has not been informed about any plans by Associated Bank to build a new corporate headquarters downtown

“I’m not aware of any concrete plans for any corporate headquarters at this time,” she said. “They may be looking to expand or come together. We don’t have any specific plans established at this time.”

The city of Green Bay plans to demolish the vacant former downtown shopping mall, once known as Port Plaza Mall and more recently known as Washington Commons. City officials recently said that a company plans to redevelop the mall site.

“The mall will come down and a business will be moving into the area,” Pollitt said. “We can’t give any more information at this time. I’m not confirming or denying (that the business is Associated Bank).”

The Milwaukee commercial real estate source said the bank was not interested in the mall site and preferred sites on or near the Fox River.