The new BNC building includes a 40,000-square-foot park at its foot and brings together 11,000 employees from across its operations in the city.ROGER LEMOYNE/The Globe and Mail
National Bank of Canada NA-T has spent more than half a billion dollars to build a new 40-storey headquarters in the heart of Montreal’s Quartier de l’innovation in what the lender calls the city’s biggest commercial real estate project in 30 years. The building, which includes a 40,000-square-foot park at its foot, brings together 11,000 employees from across its operations in the city. In many ways, it’s much more than a head office. It’s a beacon for a company that’s bulking up and claiming more space in the Canadian consciousness as it focuses on expanding its business beyond Quebec, most notably with its $5-billion bid for Edmonton-based Canadian Western Bank. It’s also a nod to the past: The location at 800 Saint-Jacques St. W. harks back to the artery’s history as the centre of Canadian finance in the 19th and early 20th centuries. We spoke to chief executive officer Laurent Ferreira this week about the bank’s new digs. This is what he said, edited for length and clarity.
We were spread out across Montreal. We were in five different locations – because of the growth of the bank over the years through acquisitions. So the idea came in 2016 that bringing all of our people together and creating a gathering place for our employees was a necessity. And we needed a bit of an upgrade, as well.
The challenge was COVID. It definitely slowed down in the project for at least six months and obviously brought all the challenges we all know about it: supply chain and the people working onsite. … But we did not stop our project. We kept going.
It’s a strong symbol for the strength of the bank and for the vitality of Montreal. I think it’s a strong signal to the business community. You know National Bank is the only Canadian D-SIB [Domestically Systemically Important Bank] headquartered in Montreal. And there’s an element of pride there, too. And our goal is to remain devoted to Canadians and the Canadian economy.
Saint-Jacques Street was, in the 19th century, the street for Canadian banks. And the Canadian National Bank, which merged with the Provincial Bank [to become National Bank], was headquartered on Saint-Jacques in the late sixties. So for us, coming back here is a very strong part of our history and the history also of Canadian banking.
As an important institution in Montreal, we have a certain leadership responsibility toward the business community. And so if this provides an incentive for others to do more, and for law firms and accounting firms to establish themselves closer to us or build bigger operations in Montreal, then great.
The interior has no offices. We have a lot of meeting rooms and people can meet together, have private conversations as well. The idea was really to emphasize collaboration. We have an environment that is more conducive to meetings, to a new era. We don’t call it an office tower. It’s a meeting place. It’s where we want our employees to congregate and innovate.
We have a cafeteria that’s on two floors. For employees with kids, we have a daycare here that can take up to 200 kids, who we feed every day. We have a gym as well and a wellness centre – a lot of amenities. And it’s also a much more welcoming place for our clients. We have a business centre and also areas for entertainment. So it’s a building that’s new and adapted to the new reality.
Being locked up in an office is not the best way to collaborate. But there’s a balance, right? Between working together as a group and also sometimes breaking up, people going in their own direction to think and do other types of work.
I come from capital markets, where I spent my whole career on the trading floor. And I felt that energy of people around me. And I think that it’s a great way to work. … The trading floor and our investment banking team will remain at the Sun Life building – we’ve been there for almost 30 years.
We’re not prescriptive in terms of days worked in the office. Our approach is really flexibility and accountability. We feel like we have the maturity as an institution [to organize our operations that way]. … Employees understand what their responsibilities are. I don’t believe in being prescriptive. And I think it works really well for us.
One thing we did in this project is we solicited our clients. So building materials, engineering, architects that participated in this project are clients of National Bank. We made it a priority. [That includes WSP Global, the structural engineer on the tower.]
We took the decision last year to acquire an adjacent building for future growth. We believe as a major institution in Montreal that we have a leadership responsibility. And I think we’re going to go in the right direction from here. Integrating Canadian Western Bank and National Bank and making it a Canadian champion – that’s what we’re focused on right now.
Multiple sculptures and artworks adorn the lobby and the exterior. The bank's signature red color is used in much of the design.ROGER LEMOYNE