Lord&Taylor selling iconic New York store to office space sharing company WeWork for US$850m
Store to be converted into WeWork headquarters
Lord&Taylor’s flagship store in Manhattan, known for its holiday displays along Fifth Avenue, is being sold to the office space sharing company WeWork.
The nearly 100-year-old building will be converted to WeWork headquarters, with less than a quarter of the space remaining for a Lord&Taylor store. Right now, 10 of the building’s 11 floors are devoted to retail.
WeWork attracts millennials who are looking to share office space, a consumer segment that Lord&Taylor owner Hudson’s Bay and other department stores want to attract. So store executives expect the stores to benefit from WeWork members going in and out of the building, and hopes they’ll be shopping.
“This is a sign of the future,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of the retail group at Douglass Elliman Real Estate. She predicted that other department stores is likely to lease some of their space to corporate groups that cater to millennials. “They’re building their own traffic generators.”
Lord&Taylor will keep the whole building with its usual operations through next year’s holiday season. And the holiday displays will go on this year and next year, the company said.
It did not say what happens beyond that. Lord&Taylor was the first to create Christmas windows for sheer entertainment, rather than for selling merchandise. It also pioneered the animated window display back in 1938.