CUNA to Move Madison, Wis., Headquarters in Spring 2023
After 68 of its 87 years sharing space in the city with CUNA Mutual Group, CUNA will move out on its own – two miles away.
After 43 years in its current Madison, Wis., location, CUNA announced Monday it will move its headquarters next spring two miles northeast to a new mixed-use development in the city.
CUNA has spent the last 43 years at the CUNA Mutual Group campus on Mineral Point Road, but the two groups were housed together at different Madison locations from CUNA Mutual Group’s founding in 1935 until it moved out from CUNA to develop the Mineral Point Road complex in 1960.
EVP/COO Jill Tomalin said CUNA has signed a lease with Madison Yards, which is opening later this year. CUNA’s lease at CUNA Mutual Group’s headquarters on Mineral Point Road was to expire at year’s end, but Tomalin said it had been extended until spring 2023 “so that we can have some time and space to move into the new building.”
CUNA’s 150 employees will occupy the third floor of a seven-story building at Madison Yards at Hill Farms. The 21-acre, mixed-use development will have offices surrounding a central green plaza with retail, restaurants, a hotel and entertainment anchored by a Whole Foods Market.
CUNA’s new footprint is less than half that of its current location because of the hybrid office arrangements it has developed since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“We are excited about our upcoming move to Madison Yards,” Tomalin said. “This move allows us to modernize our environment into a more efficient, more effective trade association to serve our credit union members.”
The arrangements took into account feedback from employees that they want to be collaborating with others when they’re physically in the office.
“Everyone has been going through lots of hybrid offerings with their workforce, and we were really fortunate that the time was now to take a serious look at how we work,” Tomalin said. “Our workforce will be able to have different options available to them, whether that means they’re a full-time resident in the office, or what we’ve been calling a nomad: Someone who may be coming in periodically, but doesn’t need a designated space.”
“We’ll have to keep an eye on how this might change, or how we can help lean into a new hybrid culture,” she said.
CUNA was founded in 1934. CUNA Mutual Group was founded in 1935 as the CUNA Mutual Society. From 1935 to 1960 they shared offices at different locations.
CUNA and the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) moved to the CUNA Mutual Group campus on the west side of Madison in 1979.
In June, WOCCU and the Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions announced plans to move this summer from the Mineral Point Road campus seven miles across town into part of the downtown Madison building housing the Filene Research Institute.
WOCCU will be moving about six or seven employees into the Lyric building at 1010 E. Washington Ave., where Filene has been located since 2017.