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

JP Morgan canceled two separate plans in the past two years to build a new office building, first at the St. Alphage House and then on a site it purchased at the Riverside South site in the Canary Wharf area. The Canary Wharf Group PLC said Monday that it will continue to work with JP Morgan until 2016 as construction and development manager to develop the Riverside South site for future use.

George Iacobescu, CEO of Canary Wharf Group, said the purchase will be a huge boost for the United Kingdom as the economy restarts. “The move…will deliver considerable economic benefits, including new jobs and local business contracts for our neighborhood here in Tower Hamlets, for London and for the UK,” Iacobescu said in a statement. JP Morgan, when it moves in during 2012, will join Canary Wharf tenants such as KPMG, Shell, Fitch, MasterCard and Moodys.

Frank Bisignano, chief administrative officer with JP Morgan, said the seven-year-old building will accommodate the company’s technology, infrastructure and amenity needs. The company also purchased 60 Victoria, a building the firm has been leasing since 1991 and currently holds the firm’s Treasury and Securities Services division. “These properties are among the most attractive pieces of real estate in London,” Bisignano said in a statement.