The US bank Citigroup is to spend £1bn to renovate its skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London, the latest firm to signal its commitment to office working.
The Wall Street lender will end up spending nearly as much on renovating the 130,000 sq metre (1.4m sq ft) building as it did on buying the site. Many City firms tend to lease their office space, but the bank bought what is now Citi Tower for £1.2bn in 2019.
Citi had considered demolishing and rebuilding the tower, but opted to renovate it instead because reusing the existing structure was deemed more sustainable.
It said the project was within budget and on track to be completed in 2026. The £1bn cost of the refit was first reported by the Financial Times.
A growing number of firms are reiterating their commitment to office working, despite pushback by some staff who have benefited from the flexibility of home working, which became essential during the Covid pandemic.
US-headquartered companies including JPMorgan Chase and Amazon have so far issued the strictest mandates, demanding staff attend work in person five days a week. Lloyds Banking Group is also considering whether senior staff are hitting their in-office targets when distributing annual bonuses.
Office hubs such as Canary Wharf have been going through an identity crisis, however, as firms such as HSBC take a different approach and try to cut costs by reducing office space.
HSBC is moving from Canary Wharf to a smaller head office near St Paul’s Cathedral as part of a decision to reduce its office space by 40%. Canary Wharf Group has revealed plans to remove large chunks from the HSBC tower and install multistorey gardens as part of a revamp of the 42-storey office block to take place after the bank moves out in 2027.
The revamp proposed by the US architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox would be the largest-ever conversion of an office tower into a mixed-use building, and is expected to be finished by about 2030.
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It is part of the group’s efforts to shake off Canary Wharf’s sterile architectural image. The group has been working to add more shops, housing, restaurants and bars, and to landscape the areas between its glass and steel towers in an effort to lure more non-professional visitors to the east London financial district. A record 67 million people visited in 2023, a quarter more than in the previous year.
