Google, Microsoft Are Looking To Expand Into Soho: Report

SOHO, NY — Tech giants Microsoft and Google are both looking to open retail stores in Soho, Crain's New York reported.

Microsoft is considering a lease for a flagship retail store at 300 Lafayette St. while Google explores opening an outpost at its long-vacant 131 Greene St. space, the website reported.

Microsoft is mulling over a brick and mortar retail space along with offices at the boutique office building on Lafayette Street. The transaction for the space, which is currently under construction, is in its infancy and once the high-end building is complete new prospective tenants may emerge, a source told Crain's.

Meanwhile, Google may be preparing to open a store in a nearby Greene Street space where it once sought to open a store in 2014 before abandoning the project and attempting to sublease the space to another company, according to the website.

Google has not filled the space with a subtenant and earlier this year passed on a chance to terminate its lease. Now the $800 billion company remains on the hook for the vacant location until 2024, signaling that the company aims to open a long-term store at the Greene Street location, a source told Crain's.

Left: Google's headquarters in the Meatpacking District. (Photo courtesy of Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Right: A Microsoft store in Midtown. (Photo courtesy of Drew Angerer/Getty Images)