(Nov 27): JPMorgan Chase & Co plans to build a new tower in Canary Wharf for its headquarters in the UK, a multibillion-pound endorsement of London’s status as a global financial centre a day after Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivered her budget.
The office building would be London’s largest by far at three million sq ft and could host as many as 12,000 employees, according to a statement from the investment bank on Thursday. The construction is expected to take six years.
The property, which will be co-developed by Canary Wharf Group, is being designed by Foster + Partners, the British architecture practice that’s also responsible for the bank’s recently opened global headquarters in New York.
“This building will represent our lasting commitment to the city, the UK,” and its staff, said JPMorgan chief executive office Jamie Dimon. “The UK government’s priority of economic growth has been a critical factor in helping us make this decision.”
With a gross internal area of 3 million sq ft, the proposal is about a third larger than the biggest office building currently in London, the 22 Bishopsgate tower, which has a a gross area of about 2.1 million sq ft and about 1.2 million sq ft of internal office space. The development is expected to contribute GBP9.9 billion (US$13 billion or $17.0 billion) to the local economy, including an additional 7,800 jobs across construction and other industries, according to JPMorgan.
The decision is a major coup for Reeves as she looks to boost growth in the UK after raising taxes by GBP26 billion in her Nov 26 budget. It comes with London suffering from a dearth of large scale new office projects following a series of shocks, including Brexit, post-pandemic flexible working, massive inflation in the cost of construction and the advent of higher interest rates.
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Dimon has been one of the staunchest advocates for a return to the office, mandating earlier this year that most employees turn up to the office five days a week, an edict that’s set the tone for tougher policies across Wall Street. That’s been a key reason in Canary Wharf’s recent revival with the number of visitors traveling to the east London financial district by rail and tube surpassing pre-pandemic levels as more bankers resume the daily trek to their desks.
JPMorgan has even had to lease additional space to facilitate their return, renting several floors in the former Credit Suisse office close to the US lender’s overflowing European headquarters.
JPMorgan acquired the Riverside South site in 2008 before opting to buy the former Lehman Brothers London headquarters at 25 Bank Street for its own occupation in 2010. The bank mothballed plans for the plot of land and hired brokers to sell it in 2014, a process that drew interest from a handful of residential developers who considered the site a prime opportunity to build luxury apartments overlooking the river. But the lender halted that process at the 11th hour a year later, instead choosing to retain ownership.
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JPMorgan currently operates in London primarily from two main locations that it owns, 25 Bank Street in Canary Wharf and 60 Victoria Embankment, while the firm also leases space at another building.
Last month, the finance group announced another GBP350 million investment plan in its Bournemouth campus for a new building and upgraded facilities.
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