BMO building massive urban campus at the Eaton Centre

The Bank of Montreal is building what it describes as a new "urban campus" for thousands of its employees, right in the heart of Toronto's busiest retail and tourism hub.

Located on the southwest corner of Yonge and Dundas Streets, directly across from Yonge-Dundas Square, the 346,000-square-foot complex is set to take over the space (or some of the space) formerly occupied by Sears at the Eaton Centre.

BMO Financial Group and Cadillac Fairview are expected to announce the revitalization of the commercial property during a press conference just ahead of noon on Thursday, but renderings provided to us ahead of time show that at least part of the office will sit atop Toronto's first Nordstrom location.

The four-storey facility is expected to open in 2021, according to the Star, and will feature a large, naturally lit atrium with collaborative workspaces throughout.

BMO workers – about 3,500 of whom are expected to flesh out this "cutting-edge" space - will have direct access to both the subway system and the PATH from their place of employment.

This means that they could, theoretically, walk between the new Eaton Centre campus and BMO's Toronto headquarters at First Canadian Place without ever needing to go outside.

Colour me jealous of that in December and January.