BANKING

Bank of America to Remain Downtown: Shuwa Investments Corp., owner of the Arco Plaza at 6th and Flower streets in downtown Los Angeles, said Bank of America has renewed its lease at the building and will also expand. The deal, for a combined 470,000 square feet of office space, was valued by commercial real estate agents at about $115 million and is one of the largest commercial transactions to be completed in more than a year. The bank holding company said it needed the extra space to accommodate workers it hired after merging with Security Pacific Bank last year. Shuwa said those workers would soon be leaving nearly 700,000 square feet of office space in the nearby Security Pacific Plaza, which would push downtown’s vacancy rate to nearly 30%.