Uniqlo is opening a new store inside the Westfield World Trade Center mall this fall, planting its flag in the Financial District after years of trying. The store will sit at 185 Greenwich St., Space 1410, in the underground shopping concourse built into the Oculus transit hub, with a projected opening date of September 25, 2026.
The location fills a retail space previously occupied by H&M, which closed on January 4, 2026, according to Tribeca Citizen. As WhatNow reports, the Financial District shop will carry clothing exclusively for men and women, distinct from some other Uniqlo locations that stock the brand's full Lifewear collection for men, women, children and babies. Uniqlo describes that clothing on its website as designed to adapt to customers' days, with a focus on functional, affordable everyday pieces.
A Decade in the Making for Lower Manhattan
Local community reporting from the FiDi Fan Page indicates Uniqlo spent more than ten years searching for a Financial District foothold, previously eyeing a spot at 23 Wall Street before commercial real estate complications there stalled the deal and pushed the company toward the Oculus lease instead. That long search makes the Westfield World Trade Center opening something of a homecoming for a neighborhood Uniqlo has circled for years without landing.
The new store joins a growing list of Uniqlo addresses across Manhattan, which per WhatNow's reporting already includes Fifth Avenue, Bryant Park, Hudson Yards, Pine Street, SoHo, Union Square and Union Station. Uniqlo currently operates 88 locations across the United States and more than 1,000 worldwide, according to the same report. The company was founded in Yamaguchi, Japan, in 1949.
Security Rules Unique to the World Trade Center Site
Working inside the World Trade Center campus comes with its own hurdles. Employees hired for the new location are required to pass security screenings, photo identification checks, fingerprinting and security training mandated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees safety and facility operations across the entire World Trade Center campus, per listings reviewed by ZipRecruiter.
Part of a Bigger New York Push
The Financial District opening is not an isolated move. It is one piece of a four-store New York City rollout planned for 2026 that also includes new locations in Williamsburg, Union Square and Bryant Park, as reported by Time Out. Uniqlo opened its Williamsburg store at 187 Kent Avenue in March 2026 and its Union Square location at 860 Broadway that April.
The timing carries some symbolic weight, too. Time Out notes the 2026 expansion coincides with the 20th anniversary of Uniqlo's North American debut, which began in 2006 when the company opened its first flagship store outside Japan in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood.
A National Growth Machine Behind the Local Opening
New York remains the center of gravity, but it is far from the whole story. Uniqlo's parent company, Fast Retailing, has set a target of operating 200 Uniqlo locations across North America by 2027 while chasing $20 billion in long-term U.S. annual sales, according to TradingView. That ambition is already showing up in the numbers: Uniqlo North America generated ¥271.1 billion, or more than $1.8 billion, in revenue during fiscal 2025, a 24.5% jump year over year, per Fast Retailing's own reporting.
Fast Retailing has also been putting real money behind its Manhattan footprint beyond store openings. The company purchased a retail condominium portion of 666/660 Fifth Avenue for roughly $350 million, a deal Hoodline previously reported came alongside a separate $402 million public streetscape redesign for Midtown's Fifth Avenue.
The 2026 strategy also extends well beyond New York, with Uniqlo opening its first U.S. flagships outside the city on high-profile commercial strips including Michigan Avenue in Chicago and Market Street in San Francisco. Newer store formats nationwide feature RFID self-checkout technology, in-store alteration services and RE.UNIQLO garment recycling bins, according to Retail Dive. Whether the Financial District store will include those same features has not been detailed in reporting so far.
