Meta locks in Fifth Avenue flagship retail store with 10-year lease | Latest Tech News
Meta announced it’s signing a 10-year lease with Vornado Realty Trust to flip its Meta Lab location in Midtown Manhattan into a everlasting flagship.
The company said Wednesday that the 697 Fifth Ave. store, which opened as a pop-up in November, will now serve as a everlasting showcase for its lineup of AI glasses and digital actuality merchandise.
Meta Lab is designed as a hands-on retail space where guests can strive the latest AI glasses choices, immerse themselves in digital worlds with Meta Quest, and explore other Reality Labs {hardware}.
Meta has signed a 10-year lease to flip its Meta Lab location at 697 Fifth Ave. into a everlasting flagship. META
“We’re proud to make a long-term commitment to Fifth Avenue, the heart of US retail,” Meta exec Matt Jacobson said in a assertion.
The tech giant designed the store to give it a New York taste — with installations and partnerships tied to town’s skate scene and local artists.
Bob Phibbs, CEO of retail consulting firm The Retail Doctor, voiced skepticism of the enterprise.
“Sunglass Hut is selling more Ray-Ban Metas before noon on a Tuesday than this store will sell all week,” he said. “Meta knows that. This location is a press release with a lease.”
The NYC flagship contains a espresso bar serving drinks from Buddies Coffee Roasters alongside interactive displays tied to skate tradition and local artists. META
The location contains an archival wall and timeline developed with Zoo York, a mural and art work from Zered Bassett’s “Paper Skaters” collection, gear and ephemera from Rookie Skateboards and an interactive gallery from Evan Mock.
The store also options a espresso bar serving drinks from Buddies Coffee Roasters.
Meta said each Meta Lab is formed by its neighborhood and will continue to evolve over time, with the New York flagship anticipated to spotlight parts of tradition in town and past.
The Manhattan store builds on a broader Meta Lab growth that contains areas in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Honolulu and Burlingame, Calif.
Meta has said demand for in-person demos has been strong, significantly for merchandise such as Meta Ray-Ban Display and the Meta Neural Band.
Meta Ray-Ban sensible glasses are showcased in the picture above. Christopher Sadowski
Meta’s new Manhattan flagship sits along Fifth Avenue as the company seems to be to deepen its presence in bodily retail. Rawf8 – stock.adobe.com
Meta’s footprint in New York City stays sizable but has been streamlined in latest years, with roughly 5,000 staff now concentrated across a handful of major Manhattan workplace hubs.
The company’s largest Big Apple presence is anchored at 50 Hudson Yards, a roughly 1.5 million-square-foot lease signed in 2019 that serves as its major New York base, alongside major places of work at the Farley Building on Ninth Avenue and 770 Broadway close to Union Square.
After a wave of layoffs and cost-cutting, Meta has scaled back on space — including giving up places of work at other Hudson Yards buildings — and consolidated operations into its core websites.
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