CHICAGO-Bank of America, based in Charlotte, NC, has completed the acquisition of LaSalle Bank Corp., based in Chicago. Bank of America acquired LaSalle Bank for $21 billion from ABN Amro Holding NV, based in Amsterdam. As part of the merger, Bank of America will move its commercial real estate banking headquarters to Chicago from Atlanta.

A specific location in Chicago for the commercial real estate banking headquarters has not been decided upon yet, a Bank of America spokesman tells GlobeSt.com. Bank of America decided to move the headquarters to Chicago because the city “is an important commercial market for us,” the spokesman says. “We thought it would be important to have one of our senior leaders in commercial real estate in Chicago.”

The acquisition will expand the presence of Bank of America in the Chicago metropolitan market. Chicago “was an important gap in our retail market,” he says. Bank of America had been previously entering the Chicago market by “building our own banking centers and that takes time to develop,” the spokesman says. The acquisition of LaSalle gives Bank of America its first presence in Michigan, the spokesman says. LaSalle had 17,000 commercial banking clients, 1.4 million retail customers, 1,500 ATM's and 400 banking centers including 256 in Michigan and six in Indiana, according to a released statement on the acquisition. Bank of America had 53 million retail customers, according to Bank of America's 2006 annual report. Figures for the amount of commercial banking clients and banking centers were not immediately available.