What will Nomura do now with its 275,000 sq ft European HQ in St Martin's le Grand, now they have signed up to go Watermark Place (below), a deeply undistinguished glass box of some 525,000 sq ft nearing completion on Upper Thames Street?
The building designed by Fletcher Priest - if design is the right word - has the capacity to hold not just the staff from the elegant stone-fronted St Martin's Le Grand building, but also 2,500 lost souls from Lehman Brothers in Canary Wharf who were rescued from banking perdition by Nomura.
The decision to take Watermark Place was both technical (two sources of power supply thanks to the legacy of the even uglier BT building, Mondial House, that used to sit on the site) and political: OK, let's all get everyone together in the one spot, even though it is not such a nice spot.
There is of course a second question surrounding the letting. How many years rent free did Drivers Jonas negotiate for Nomura from UBS and the Canadian public service pension fund that paid the US$500m (£308m) construction cost. Guesses over three years welcome.
