Starbucks Developing ‘Bigger and Bolder’ Reserve Roastery in New York

The Starbucks Seattle Reserve roastery. Photo courtesy of Starbucks.

Starbucks is currently developing a 20,000-square-foot roastery in New York’s Meatpacking District that company chairman and CEO promises will be “bigger and bolder” than Starbucks’ impressive Reserve-brand roastery flagship, which opened with much fanfare in Seattle in December 2014.

“Our Seattle Roastery experience created something that had never been done before, transforming a retail environment into something far beyond just a coffeeshop and into the single best retail experience of any kind,” Schultz said in a company announcement today. “In New York, we want to take elements from what we originally created and build something even bigger and bolder, celebrating coffee and craft in a completely unique and differentiated way. We want this experience to tell our customers that we’re coming to Broadway.”

The New York roastery will be part of a new nine-story, 170,000-square-foot building being developed one block south of Chelsea Market. The company expects to open the facility in 2018, drawing inspiration from its 15,000-square-foot Seattle roastery, which has served as the production facility for the company’s Reserve brand of limited-availability, single-origin coffees. Said Starbucks today:

A local sensation since opening its doors, the Roastery is coffee as theater, encouraging customers to interact with Starbucks roasters and baristas in order to deepen their understanding of the art behind sourcing, roasting and brewing rare coffees. With Starbucks unique, small batch process taking center stage, the Seattle Roastery has transformed specialty coffee and reframed what is possible to do within the four walls of a retail environment.