Citigroup’s lavish renovation of its 42-storey building in London’s Canary Wharf is expected to come with an eye-watering £1 billion price tag, as the group invests in a range of amenities to tempt its staff back to the office.
The refurbishment of the 25 Canada Square building, pegged to open in 2026, has seen Citigroup invest in outdoor winter gardens and mini villages to create a state-of-the-art workspace for its London workers.
The refurbishment was originally reported by the Financial Times to cost around £100 million when it was launched in January 2022. A representative for Citigroup told Fortune that the figure had never been accurate and was never confirmed by the bank. Citigroup says the project will come in on budget and that the group hasn’t overspent.
This means that in total, Citigroup will have spent more than £2.2 billion on buying and renovating 25 Canada Square. The bank originally spent £1.2 billion on the tower in 2019, meaning the renovation will cost almost as much as paying for the original structure.
The FT reports that Citigroup opted to renovate the structure rather than tear it down and rebuild, owing to the latter being a more sustainable, if more expensive, option.
The decision to buy 25 Canada Square, meanwhile, is part of a Citigroup strategy to move away from leasing office spaces.
The renovation is symbolic of a push by Citigroup to use the carrot rather than the stick to get their employees to the office.
The bank hasn’t been as aggressive as its competitors in mandating a return to the office. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, for example, have implemented strict full return-to-office mandates for employees.
Deutsche Bank, meanwhile, banned workers from working from home on a Friday followed by a consecutive Monday.
Citi, on the other hand, has been relatively sanguine about the return to office compared with its competitors. The group has stuck to a hybrid model of three days in the office, and said in 2023 it would monitor attendance with a focus on workers who consistently missed this target.
The group’s renovation is reflective of that light-tough approach, with an emphasis on attracting rather than forcing staff back to the office.
Renovations will include punching through several floors to add staircases that will create what it calls multilevel “villages” for different teams.
The middle of the building will contain what the group calls a “winter garden,” with other gardens, including a client entertaining space at the top, dotted throughout the building.
Other banks have planned their own renovations in Canary Wharf, which is undergoing a major rebrand aiming to respond to the post-COVID world of hybrid work.
The Canary Wharf Group (CWG) is planning a massive overhaul of the HSBC tower when the bank vacates the space in 2027. Similar to Citi, the building will have chunks removed to create outdoor garden spaces within the structure.
