Meta is turning its Meta Lab pop-up in midtown Manhattan into a permanent flagship. The company has signed a 10-year lease agreement for the five-level, 15,000-square-foot townhouse adjacent to the St. Regis Hotel that originally had served as home to a temporary pop-up showcasing the company’s AI and VR wearables.
The store, located at 697 Fifth Avenue, will be the first flagship retail location for Meta in Manhattan and follows the opening of the first Meta Lab flagship in Los Angeles in 2025 (which also began life as a pop-up).
Designed for hands-on discovery, Meta Lab invites visitors to experience Meta’s AI glasses and virtual reality headsets like Meta Quest to understand how the technology works and imagine how it could fit into everyday life. Each location is shaped by its neighborhood, co-created with local artists and communities around distinct creative themes, and brought to life in an authentic, welcoming space.
“The New York store celebrates skating culture, and LA’s store is a love letter to low-riders, and the stores feature run clubs, launch parties and cultural events from music, fashion, sports and creators,” said Nicola Mendelsohn, Head of Global Business Group at Meta, speaking at Shoptalk last week. “We want to bring people together not just to browse but to participate.”
Meta is now operating five Lab stores and just opened a pop-up in Las Vegas, according to Mendelsohn, who said the stores function as “retail R&D for our discovery economy. We can see what’s drawing people in, and if the layout is confusing, we’ll fix it. It can be a store that ‘learns,’ because we iterate quickly to make those changes.
“Our ultimate goal is to bring our learnings to more retailers, so they can offer better discovery, more confident buyers and more measurable conversion, both online and in-store,” Mendelsohn added.
Originally designed as a pop-up concept that included stops in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City and Honolulu, the shift toward permanent flagships in tech and retail mainstays like LA and NYC highlights the company’s renewed focus on its tech-enabled wearables.
“We’re proud to make a long-term commitment to Fifth Avenue, the heart of U.S. retail,” said Matt Jacobson, VP and Creative Director of Wearables at Meta in a statement. “Our people-first approach to experiential retail is rooted in culture, creativity and self-expression, and it’s driving meaningful sales and awareness of our products. Placing our flagship store alongside the brands that help define culture will distinguish Meta Lab from traditional consumer electronics retail. There’s no better home than NYC to innovate on retail, and we’ll continue to celebrate the community while making our products easy to see, try and understand.”
