Mark Zuckerberg’s company is making its East Coast retail bet official. Meta Platforms has signed a 10-year lease with Vornado Realty Trust for the entire 15,000-square-foot, five-story townhouse at 697 Fifth Avenue, converting what began as a blue-painted pop-up last November into the company’s first permanent flagship store on the East Coast. The space, branded Meta Lab, will sit adjacent to the base of the St. Regis Hotel between East 54th and East 55th streets, putting Meta squarely in the middle of the most expensive retail corridor in the United States.
The announcement, made jointly by Meta and Vornado on March 18, marks the second long-term Meta Lab commitment in less than a year, following the company’s 20,000-square-foot flagship that opened at 8600 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood in 2025. Pop-up locations in Las Vegas at the Wynn and in Honolulu, along with a store in Burlingame, California, round out the brand’s growing physical footprint. Additional locations are planned through the rest of 2026.
A Pop-Up That Worked
The Fifth Avenue deal is the rare retail story driven by hard foot-traffic numbers. Matt Jacobson, Meta’s vice president and creative director of wearables, told WWD that the company’s strategy was to test the concept first and sign long-term leases only if the math held up. The original 5,000-square-foot pop-up, which opened in November 2025, drew between 1,000 and 1,500 visitors a day. That performance was enough to push Meta into a full-building commitment four months later.
“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,” Jacobson said in the company’s statement. “Placing our flagship store alongside the brands that help define culture will distinguish Meta Lab from traditional consumer electronics retail.”
The store showcases Meta’s Reality Labs hardware lineup, including its Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley AI glasses and Meta Quest virtual reality headsets. The product line is anchored by the smart glasses partnership with EssilorLuxottica, which has emerged as one of the more visible consumer wins in Meta’s broader AI hardware push.
What Vornado Gets
For Vornado, the deal is both a financial win and a signal. The REIT did not disclose the asking rent, but the median asking rent along Fifth Avenue between East 49th and East 59th streets reached $2,550 per square foot in the second half of 2025, according to a Real Estate Board of New York report. Cushman & Wakefield separately tracked average asking rents on the same stretch at $2,305 per square foot in Q4, up nearly 4% year over year.
Glen Weiss, Vornado’s executive vice president and co-head of real estate, framed the deal as a continuation of the REIT’s long-standing relationship with Meta. “Fifth Avenue remains one of the most attractive retail corridors in the world for today’s most innovative and iconic brands,” Weiss said. “We are thrilled to further extend our long-standing relationship with Meta and applaud their permanent entry into New York City’s retail landscape.”
That relationship runs deep. Meta signed a 15-year, 730,000-square-foot lease for the entire office portion of Vornado’s Farley Building at 390 Ninth Avenue in August 2020, anchoring the Penn District redevelopment during the pandemic. The location now serves as Meta’s NYC headquarters and engineering hub. The new Fifth Avenue lease adds a street-level retail layer to a footprint the company has been building since it first entered New York in 2007.
There is also a financial subplot for Vornado. In February 2023, the REIT and joint venture partner Crown Acquisitions defaulted on a $450 million non-recourse loan tied to the 697-703 Fifth Avenue assemblage when it matured. Vornado worked out a loan modification six months later, according to Traded. A 10-year anchor tenant at the property strengthens the income story considerably.
The Bigger Bet
The Meta Lab opening lands at a moment when Fifth Avenue has been quietly recovering from its post-pandemic dip. Recent flagship openings include The North Face’s 21,000-square-foot global flagship at 511 Fifth Avenue and Baccarat’s relocated US flagship at 33 Ninth Avenue in the Meatpacking District. Manhattan’s overall office and retail availability has been tightening, with the borough’s office availability rate dropping to 14.6% in Q1 2026, according to Avison Young.
Meta’s deal also reflects a broader pivot among tech companies. Apple normalized the experiential consumer electronics store more than two decades ago, and Google has experimented with retail in Chelsea since 2021. Meta’s bet is that AI wearables and VR are products that need to be touched, tried, and worn before they sell, and that the most expensive retail address in America is the right place to prove it.
Meta Lab at 697 Fifth Avenue is currently open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
