JPMorgan & Chase opens its new headquarters in Midtown Manhattan this week, hoping its modern amenities will help recruit more people. These headquarters are a $3 billion, 60-storey skyscraper. The tower can accommodate 10,000 workers and will serve as a model for the company’s future offices worldwide, said David Arena, the head of global corporate real estate for the largest U.S. lender. “We tried to future-proof the building,” Arena added.
The new site on Park Avenue will have biometric access and a building app that allows employees to order food and reserve meeting rooms. It will also have a drone port for package deliveries. Amenities in the skyscraper include a Michelin-starred vegan restaurant, a cafe serving protein shakes from an Airstream trailer and an English-style pub. Arena also mentioned that the tower has 50% more hospitality space than any previous JPMorgan property, Arena said.
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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and other executives have taken an active role in the design of the skyscraper, according to a Fortune report. Architect Norman Foster, who had previously worked on Apple’s headquarters in California and Hearst Tower in Manhattan, said the project may top his previous work.
“In terms of leisure, entertainment, lifestyle, I would say that every level of this tower pushes those boundaries further than anything we’ve done before,” he told The Wall Street Journal on Friday.
David Arena also said that Dimon essentially acted as the building’s “master architect,” according to WSJ. Doug Petno, co-head of commercial and investment banking, was tasked with looking at the ground floor and lobby. Mary Erdoes, head of asset and wealth management, and Marianne Lake, the consumer head, planned office floors and client spaces. And Erdoes joined former president Daniel Pinto to look at the executive floor.
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Dimon has been a prominent advocate of working in office, rather than home, and he hopes these new headquarters will help attract and retain talent for the company.
“We think of the building as a recruitment tool,” Arena said. “A workplace needs to be a destination, it needs to be commute-worthy. It needs to provide an elevated experience for employees, for clients and for visitors.”
About 97% of the material from the bank’s demolished old building, which stood on the same site, was recycled. The new structure was built with sustainability in mind, including use of recycled metals and other materials, according to Reuters.
JPMorgan said last year that the construction of the headquarters required 8,000 workers and added $2.6 billion to the city’s economy. The completion of the building is an important milestone for Dimon, who is the longest-serving leader of the bank.