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JPMorgan is in talks to lease about a third of Credit Suisse’s former UK headquarters in Canary Wharf as the US bank pushes to bring all its staff back to full-time work in the office.
UBS inherited the lease on One Cabot Square, owned by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), when it rescued Credit Suisse in a state-sponsored takeover in 2023. The Swiss bank has been consolidating its staff in its existing office at Broadgate in the City of London.
JPMorgan is negotiating to sublease 150,000 sq ft of space in the 21-storey building, which was partly refurbished in the years before Credit Suisse’s demise, according to people familiar with the matter.
The requirements of the Wall Street behemoth, which notched up record annual profits last year, might expand to as much as half the building, one of the people added.
One Cabot Square was one of the first buildings completed at Canary Wharf, which was strongly supported by Credit Suisse First Boston chair at the time, Michael von Clemm. The lender was among the dockland financial district’s original tenants. The 540,000 sq ft building is leased until 2034.
Canary Wharf is facing an increase in empty buildings in the wake of the pandemic as some big tenants — including HSBC and Clifford Chance — return to the City of London, and others such as Barclays and Morgan Stanley give up surplus blocks.
Canary Wharf Group, owned by QIA and Brookfield, has invested in adding more green space, restaurants and entertainment attractions to boost footfall and improve the environment for tenants. Revolut recently hoisted a new sign on to the former Reuters building after leasing a new, much larger headquarters space.
Some companies are now seeing a need for more office space. HSBC is considering additional space beyond the building it leased near St Paul’s, which is just over half the size of its tower in Canary Wharf.
JPMorgan’s talks about a lease, first reported by Bloomberg News, predate its decision to require all staff to return to the office five days a week from March. But the bank’s roughly 1mn sq ft tower in Canary Wharf, which it owns, is overcapacity — with pressure set to increase as it ends hybrid working.
Overflow space at One Cabot Square could also potentially help JPMorgan house staff that may need to move out of the tower to accommodate a refurbishment.
UBS and JPMorgan declined to comment.
