In a strong gesture and bucking the current trend, the National Bank of Canada (NBC) has just agreed to pay around $150 million to Broccolini to acquire ten office floors in the high-rise next to its new headquarters. Montrealer.
While many large companies are trying by all means to reduce their presence in the city center due to teleworking, everything indicates that the National Bank, on the contrary, is preparing to welcome an even larger number of employees there.
At the corner of Robert-Bourassa Boulevard and Saint-Jacques Street West, just a stone's throw from the old Stock Exchange Tower, construction of the National Bank's new headquarters was expected to cost $500 million. The now completed building has 40 floors, enough to accommodate the originally planned around 7,000 employees.
More presence in the office?
Although there were doubts about its ability to fill all floors of its new headquarters, the bank expanded. According to the deed of sale signed at the end of November, the National Bank became the owner (for $149.2 million) of the entire ten-story podium on which Victoria sur le Parc stands, this new 58-story condominium tower.
In an interview with Le Journal, the National Bank's vice president of employee experience, Cristina Cistellini, refused to confirm that the expansion of around 330,000 square meters of commercial space – enough to accommodate 5,000 additional employees – would take place at the foot of the bank at 700 rue Saint-Jacques Ouest, would lead to an increase in the attendance requirements of its employees in the city center.
Photo provided by Broccolini
“We saw that there was a great opportunity [de nous] directly on the other side of the park and connected by an underground corridor. The opportunity was there, we decided to take advantage of it. But it is still too early to say how we will occupy these spaces. It is not yet scheduled to open before 2026.”
Consolidation of the real estate portfolio
Last fall, the National Bank announced that it wanted to “further consolidate” its real estate portfolio. Story of “bringing together even more teams, previously spread across different buildings, into a real living and collaborative environment.” Ms. Cistellini was unable to inform us about these offices that the bank plans to close to create this new “collaborative environment” in the International District.
Cristina Cistellini, Vice President, Employee Experience, National Bank. Photo provided by the National Bank of Canada
Last fall, a study by real estate firm Avison Young found that the corporate office vacancy rate in downtown Montreal was 17.2%, compared to 10.9% before the pandemic.
In fact, SNC-Lavalin, Canadian National, Laurentian Bank, Cascades, Resolute Forest Products, Desjardins, Investissement Québec and Hydro-Québec, to name a few, have significantly reduced the size of their presence in Montreal.
According to Toronto real estate firm CBRE, we have to go back to 1997 to find such a high office availability rate in Montreal. The Montreal Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce is pleased that 87% of workers are back in the office at least once a week.
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