00:00The skyline in London's Canary Wharf is set for a major new update as JPMorgan unveils plans
00:04for its new UK headquarters. The tower will have 3 million square feet of office space,
00:10room for up to 12,000 employees. It's a multi-billion dollar voter confidence from
00:15one of Wall Street's biggest names. Canary Wharf is already home to JPMorgan's existing
00:20UK headquarters, but the new tower will be London's largest office building by far.
00:25Construction is expected to take around six years on the new tower.
00:28The bank's London ambitions come after it recently opened its new $4 billion global
00:32headquarters in New York. Now, all of this is good news for East London's financial district
00:37after a difficult stretch. The shock Brexit vote of 2016 threatened an exodus of the bankers that
00:42dominate the neighbourhood. The rise of home working during the pandemic and the higher
00:46interest rates that followed have all posed serious questions about the area's future.
00:51But now Canary Wharf may be having something of a comeback. It's already seeing more commuters than
00:55before the pandemic compared to financial rivals the City of London and the West End.
01:00Now that could be helped in part by the mandate from Jamie Dimon that most JPMorgan staff have got
01:04to be back in the office five days a week. Working in the district's favour as well is a severe shortage
01:10of new high quality workspaces in the centre of London. That's particularly the case for larger
01:14companies. Now, all of this is the result of a decade of uncertainty from Brexit to the pandemic to
01:20the higher interest rates that followed. All of that deterring developers from wanting to start new
01:24office projects. Whether it amounts to a sustained revival for Canary Wharf is yet to be seen, but this
01:29big investment from JP Morgan may be getting it off to a good start.
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