‘Not meant to make a big statement’: JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon on why the bank has shelled out US$4 billion on New York HQ

[SINGAPORE] What does a “workplace of the future” look like? Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, has a pretty good idea – and that is the bank’s new 60-storey, US$4 billion global headquarters in the heart of Manhattan in New York.

The all-electric tower, which officially opened in October, is 423 m tall, has net-zero operational emissions and is powered entirely by renewable hydroelectric energy.

Inside the massive building that spans 2.5 million square feet are Michelin-starred restaurants, an English-style pub, desk-side food delivery options, in-house yoga classes, on-site physical therapy and much more.

The lighting system is able to mimic people’s natural circadian rhythms and adjust the brightness to match the time of the day, while the temperature of meeting rooms can be adjusted to suit individual preferences.

Some 10,000 employees will work from this skyscraper located at 270 Park Avenue, with Dimon himself moving into his brand new office there this month.

“This wasn’t meant for us to make a big statement,” said the 69-year-old American in an exclusive interview with The Business Times, when asked about the decision to invest in this headquarters.

“We were already there (at this same address) but it was an older building that wasn’t as secure and it couldn’t accommodate our trading floors. And so we decided to look around for something new. We needed space. We were running out of space for our people.”

To construct a tower this tall meant that the bank had to purchase air rights. It did so by buying unused air rights from surrounding buildings such as Grand Central Station and St Bartholomew’s Church. This allowed it to significantly increase the building’s height beyond standard zoning limits.

Dimon, who has been a well-known advocate of having employees work at the office rather than at home or elsewhere, described the gleaming headquarters as a “labour of love”.

“The whole management team got involved. I visited some of the best buildings in the world. We got five different architects (including Foster + Partners), and we met regularly with them and their teams,” said the longest-serving leader among the biggest banks in the US.

“We’ve even got a digital twin (of the tower), so it’s super secure. It’s got a lot of AI (artificial intelligence) in it. And it’s a very green building, with two to three times as much oxygen as you get in this room right now,” he said, gesturing to the space in the club lounge of the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore hotel where this interview was conducted.

Now that the Park Avenue building is completed, renovations have started at the bank’s other New York building along Madison Avenue, which is directly across the street.

Super structures

Outside the Big Apple, JPMorgan has pumped in billions of dollars in recent years to renovate, expand and build its offices across the US and around the world.

Dimon’s previous trip to Singapore was in June 2022 when he attended the official launch of the bank’s Singapore city office at CapitaSpring in Raffles Place.

Alongside then-senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Dimon cut the ribbon to mark the opening of the office, which occupies 155,000 sq ft across seven floors and features real-time air quality sensors and automated sun screens. The bank’s other premises in Singapore are located in Changi.

It was reported in October that JPMorgan had upgraded some 125,000 workstations in Paris, Tokyo, Bangalore and Mexico City in the last five years, with work to be done on 75,000 more workstations in the coming years.

Last month, the bank announced plans to build a three million sq ft tower in London’s Canary Wharf financial district, with the project expected to contribute £9.9 billion (S$17.1 billion) over six years to the local economy.

When complete, the new building will accommodate up to 12,000 employees and will be JPMorgan’s largest office in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“We build great spaces for our people. We treat our people with a lot of respect when it comes to real estate, health policies, compensation, jobs, opportunities inside the company,” said Dimon of the more than 300,000 employees worldwide currently on the bank’s payroll.

“They are our most important asset, and I don’t say that lightly. They are the company. We spend US$45 billion on our people, and US$4 billion on real estate and US$3 billion on healthcare.”