J.P. Morgan has bought the former Lehman Brothers building for its investment bank, while keeping its options open on plans to erect a new skyscraper nearby as its European headquarters. The US bank bought the Lehman building at 25 Bank Street in London''s Canary Wharf financial district for 495 million pounds ($773.4 million), seller Canary Wharf Group (CWG) said on Monday, adding that the two groups would continue to develop the Riverside South site.
J.P. Morgan is still reviewing its plans for Riverside South, said John Garwood, secretary of Songbird Estates, majority owner of CWG. The site will potentially have a much larger building. "They''re (J.P. Morgan) going to review what their future requirements are going to be and they''ll be looking at carrying on with a full design over the years to come," said Garwood. "But short term, we''ll be building it up to street level and then we''ll obviously also be reviewing what''s best to go on that site." J.P. Morgan and the CWG, which owns the majority of the Canary Wharf district''s property, had stopped building a conspicuous new headquarters on the Riverside South site earlier this year, triggering speculation J.P. Morgan would axe the costly project, under pressure from negative sentiment against banks.