The Estée Lauder Cos. held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, November 1, to celebrate the opening of its new Long Island City technology hub. Approximately 70 percent of the company’s NY-based IT staff, who were previously spread across eight buildings across New York City and Long Island, moved into the LIC space in September. The other 30 percent will remain in the Melville location.

“We have the exciting job of fusing beauty and technology together,” said Michael W. Smith, Lauder’s Chief Information Officer. “The need to constantly create, innovate and experiment led us to build this office space that is beautiful and reflects the prestige nature of our business. The space inspires us to break through technology and consumer experiences, and at the center of it all is collaboration.”

The importance of the united layout of the new space was echoed by William P. Lauder, Lauder’s Executive Chairman, who said,“The amount of collaboration the team is able to do when they are all near each other, as opposed to different buildings, has really made a huge difference, and I’m thrilled that this will allow our employees to thrive in an environment that stimulates creativity.”

The technology hub includes open floor plans where managers sit alongside their teams for accessibility and to create an environment that fosters interaction. To that end, there are no individual offices; however, there are ample meeting spaces available and private break rooms employees can book if they need privacy. When employees need to unwind, the office offers several social gathering spaces, food pantries and even an X-Box gaming area. The office is also equipped with innovation labs that create immersive experiences and encourage experimentation; an analytics lab to track consumer trends; a cybersecurity room to monitor threats; and, a retail lab where staffs can see the real time the performance of the company’s products out in the market.

With the new space, Lauder is hoping to secure its footprint in Long Island City, which is positioned to become the next leading tech ecosystem as part of the “Western Queens Tech Zone Strategic Plan.”

“This location was important to us because we wanted to be a part of Long Island City’s emerging presence, as it is becoming one of the leading tech communities” said Michael. “We’re in the middle of a lot of tech startups, other big tech hubs and with the investments we are making, we believe we are positioned to attract the best IT talent.”