First look at Nomura’s new office
THE first photographs from inside Nomura’s new Thames side office, Watermark Place, were released yesterday, just under a year after City PM exclusively revealed the Japanese bank was returning to the City.
Nomura, which decided to ditch Canary Wharf in July, will move its 3,600 employees – as well as 2,000 former Lehman Brothers workers.
The 5,000 or so staff will move into the 12 storey, 600,000 sq ft riverside development next year, leaving the former Lehman Brothers building in Canary Wharf empty.
Nomura moved into Lehman’s Canary Wharf office after the bank collapsed last year, sparking an internal debate over whether to situate the bank in Docklands or the City.
But Nomura favoured a move closer to its 1 St Martins Le Grand Nomura House office near St Pauls, which it has occupied since its British launch in 1985.
Due to depressed commercial property values, the bank will be paying an initial rent of around £40 per sq ft on a 20 year lease – significantly lower than the £70 per sq ft the property would have fetched in boom times.
And Nomura also won a six year rental holiday, meaning it will not pay any rent until 2015.