Secura planning $90 million HQ in Fox Crossing
Fox Crossing — Secura Insurance plans to build a new corporate headquarters valued at about $90 million on land it owns in the Fox Valley along Winnebago County Highway CB.
Construction of the 285,000square-foot office building will begin this spring, according to a development agreement approved Monday by the Village Board. The agreement requires Secura to spend at least $60 million on the project.
Dave Gross, Secura president and CEO, said the company’s investment will be far more than that.
“All in, if you think of access roads into the property and retention ponds, we could push into that $90 million range,” Gross said.
Secura has 500 local employees and plans to move them to the new location by the end of 2019.
The new headquarters will have room for 900 employees.
Gross said the company will try to sell its current headquarters at 2401 S. Memorial Drive in Appleton.
“We’ll work with a couple of developers and people in the community to see if there is someone we could attract to it,” he said of the 22-acre campus.
The new building is designed to support Secura’s growth. In the past decade, the company has increased its annual revenue by nearly 80% and its workforce by more than 40%. Since 2015, it has been leasing space at 445 Calumet St. as a temporary solution to the space crunch at its home campus.
“Secura has done business in northeastern Wisconsin for 117 years,” Gross said. “This new development positions us for the next 100 years.”
Secura owns 160 acres on CB just north of the village’s municipal complex. The headquarters will be built on 78 acres at
the south end of the property.
Village President Dale Youngquist said he anticipates the new facility and employees “will spur further development on our west side.”
The development agreement says Fox Crossing will reimburse Secura an amount equal to 25% of the value of the project. If the project has a value of $60 million, the payment to Secura would be $15 million. If it has a value of $90 million, the payment would be $22.5 million.
The agreement says the incentive from the village is necessary to induce the development. “The project will not proceed without the financial assistance set forth in this agreement,” it says.
The village will create a tax incremental financing district to pay for the incentive.
In a TIF district, all of the property taxes generated from new development in the district goes toward reimbursing the municipality for any costs or commitments it incurred to bring about that development. The revenue from the increment is diverted from the school district, county and technical college for as long as the district is in place.
The incentive will be paid only as property taxes are collected on the new development, limiting the village’s risk.
Secura, in turn, will spend at least $3 million on public improvements, including a roundabout on CB and a stormwater pond system and dedicate the improvements to the village.
George Dearborn, Fox Crossing’s community development director, said the project is a win for the village and Secura.
“We’re excited to see this kind of a complex,” Dearborn said. “We think it’s something that works well with what we’re doing. It’s going to be a great benefit to us and we feel we’re a great benefit to them.”
Secura also will be assisted by the state. In 2015, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. awarded Secura $2.5 million in tax credits to assist with construction and equipment costs associated with a new headquarters. The tax credits are tied to a stipulation that Secura must retain its current employees and create 65 new full-time jobs.
Dearborn said the creation of the TIF district will allow the village to pay for other projects separate from the Secura development.
The village has two other TIF districts, one centered on the new corporate headquarters of Community First Credit Union and one on the new headquarters of WOW Logistics.