LONDON-JP Morgan will consolidate about 8,000 employees in fourlocal offices into a new one-million-square-foot Europeanheadquarters, as the investment firm has purchased 25 Bank St. fora reported $770 million. Lehman Bros. left the building, in theCanary Wharf area, in 2008 when the company collapsed.

JP Morgan canceled two separate plans in the past two years tobuild a new office building, first at the St. Alphage House andthen on a site it purchased at the Riverside South site in theCanary Wharf area. The Canary Wharf Group PLC said Monday that itwill continue to work with JP Morgan until 2016 as construction anddevelopment manager to develop the Riverside South site for futureuse.

George Iacobescu, CEO of Canary Wharf Group, said the purchasewill be a huge boost for the United Kingdom as the economyrestarts. “The move…will deliver considerable economic benefits,including new jobs and local business contracts for ourneighborhood here in Tower Hamlets, for London and for the UK,”Iacobescu said in a statement. JP Morgan, when it moves in during2012, will join Canary Wharf tenants such as KPMG, Shell, Fitch,MasterCard and Moodys.