JP Morgan commits to Canary Wharf headquarters
JP Morgan committed itself to London this morning as it confirmed it would buy the 1m sq ft building in London’s Canary Wharf previously used by Lehman Brothers, in a £495m deal to create its European investment banking headquarters. The bank’s operations are currently spread across several buildings but will be consolidated at 25 Bank Street from 2012.
As reported by the Financial Times on 24 November, JP Morgan has decided to move into the ex-Lehman building instead of building a new property in the Docklands area on a site known as Riverside South. Songbird Estates said in an announcement to the London Stock Exchange that its Canary Wharf Group subsidiary would continue to work with the bank on developing Riverside South for future use. “Design and construction work will recommence immediately to bring the development to street level. In addition, CWG and JPM have extended their development agreement to October 2016,” Songbird Estates said.
JP Morgan chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said the acquisition was a long-term investment and represented part of the bank’s “continued commitment to London as one of the world’s most important financial centres.”
Meanwhile Almacantar, the vehicle for former Land Securities executive Mike Hussey, has provisionally agreed to buy the landmark Centre Point building in the West End of London. It has offered to pay £120m to Deloitte, the administrators of the Targetfollow portfolio of which Centre Point forms a part, but will spend the next two months doing due diligence on the deal.
