Jane Street Expands London Office Footprint

After a record year on Wall Street, Jane Street Capital is eyeing more office space.

The trading firm is negotiating a potential 450,000-square-foot lease at JPMorgan Chase’s 10 Bishops Square in the United Kingdom capital, Bloomberg reported. The lease would nearly double the firm’s space in London, where it occupies 235,000 square feet at Devonshire Square.

JPMorgan and Jane Street both declined to comment to the publication. The deal, first reported to be in initial discussions by Green Street News, has not been finalized.

But the planned expansion exemplifies the explosive growth of the trading firm. Last year, the firm scored $39.6 billion in trading revenue, setting a Wall Street record. More office space in London could help the company increase or recruit people to the workforce.

It will likely cost Jane Street a pretty penny to make the move, though its historic revenue could make it seem like chump change. At the end of last year, the rent per square foot in the City of London district was $138.92, according to Knight Frank.

Stateside, Jane Street signed a big lease last year, when it inked a new megalease at Brookfield Properties’ 250 Vesey Street in Manhattan, where the quant trading firm has been growing for the past decade.

The firm signed a new long-term lease for 1 million square feet at the Brookfield Place building, a 400,000-square-foot expansion. The company originally relocated to the property in 2014 when it signed on for about 117,000 square feet, growing over the years to 600,000 before the most recent deal.

In fact, Jane Street’s expansion was so big that Brookfield had to relocate its own corporate offices in the building to make way for the trading firm’s growth.

Jane Street isn’t alone in eyeing London office space, additional or initial. The state of Texas is opening a London office to attract investment and jobs from the United Kingdom, specifically targeting the city of London’s financial firms.

— Holden Walter-Warner