Church Mutual Insurance Company’s recent growth has spurred the 118-year-old property and casualty company to sign a long-term lease to rent space in the former Walmart building, located in the Merrill Pine Ridge Mall.
With more than 750 employees occupying three wings at Church Mutual’s Home Office, the company was looking for additional space beyond the occupancy it utilizes off Highway G in Merrill.
Initial plans will call for approximately 165 employees to move into the former Walmart building beginning in the latter part of 2015, with the goal of all of them in place by early 2016.
Church Mutual will move its entire Claims Department and some individuals from other areas of the company to the new location, freeing up necessary space at its Home Office for its Commercial Lines Operations, the largest department in the company.
Plans call for a separate cafeteria and fitness center at the new facility.
“We had stretched our Home Office capacity to the limit,” Church Mutual CEO Mike Ravn explained. “I wanted a solution that was both more flexible and less expensive than building a fourth wing to our existing structure.
“But, first and foremost, I was committed to keeping our employees in the city of Merrill,” he continued. “Taking over and converting the old Walmart location into a service center operation for Church Mutual is a win-win solution … good for Church Mutual, good for Merrill.”