Warby Parker, a national eyewear retailer, will open its first St. Petersburg storefront at 1124 Central Avenue in the EDGE District, according to an announcement on June 1. The new location will occupy the space formerly home to Bacon Bitch and is part of a property portfolio acquired by Dallas-based investment firm 90Ten, which has invested $18.5 million in the area since December.
Archer Group represented 90Ten in securing the lease for Warby Parker’s new store. The company is currently hiring for several positions including optical manager, licensed optician, and other retail roles. Once operational, the store will offer comprehensive eye exams, prescription updates, and Warby Parker’s full lineup of eyewear products.
The expansion marks another step for Warby Parker’s growth across Tampa Bay over the past decade. The brand entered the Tampa market in 2016 with a showroom inside Oxford Exchange before opening full-scale stores at International Plaza in 2019 and Hyde Park Village in 2022.
Founded in New York City by four friends in 2010 as an online-only startup aiming to disrupt traditional eyewear retailing, Warby Parker quickly gained traction after exceeding its first-year sales goals within three weeks of launching following media coverage from national fashion publications. Three years later, it opened its first permanent brick-and-mortar location in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood.
Today, Warby Parker operates hundreds of locations throughout North America alongside its e-commerce business and has adopted new technology such as a mobile app that allows customers to virtually try on glasses using their phone’s camera and manage prescriptions. The company plans to launch Intelligent Eyewear—smart glasses developed with Samsung and Google—featuring built-in speakers, microphones, cameras, and integration with Google’s Gemini AI assistant this fall.
Warby Parker joins other national retailers recently established or soon opening locations within the EDGE District such as Sweetgreen, Pure Green, Solidcore, Floyd’s 99 Barbershop, and CorePower Yoga later this year. St. Pete Rising functions as an independent news publication covering urban development across St. Petersburg by offering news articles about downtown progress along with an events calendar and development map designed to strengthen community ties through stories on local growth, according to the official website.
