TurboTax Plans 3-Story Flagship Store On Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade

SANTA MONICA, CA — TurboTax is making a major move into brick-and-mortar retail, and the company has chosen Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade for a flagship location that will eventually span three floors and a rooftop.

The tax software giant plans to open the first two floors of its new flagship at 1408 Third Street in January 2027, with a third floor and rooftop expected to follow later in the year, company spokesperson and CPA Lisa Greene-Lewis told Patch.

The Santa Monica location is already listed on TurboTax's website, but the scale of the company's plans for the property — and its decision to establish a flagship on the Promenade — have not previously been announced.

"We're making a significant investment to create a one-of-a-kind TurboTax flagship, designed around access to expert tax and financial guidance year-round," Greene-Lewis told Patch in written answers following an interview last week.

Asked why the company chose Third Street Promenade, Greene-Lewis said both the building and its location played a role. "We're excited by how the unique qualities of the building allow us to serve the Westside community in new ways," she said. "It was also important to us to establish our flagship in a culturally significant LA destination."

From Software To Storefront

The Santa Monica flagship is part of a nationwide push into physical locations by Intuit, TurboTax's Mountain View-based parent company. Intuit announced last year plans for approximately 20 TurboTax stores in major U.S. cities alongside nearly 600 smaller Expert Offices.

The strategy took its most visible form Jan. 15, when the company opened its flagship store at 463 Broadway in New York City's SoHo neighborhood.

Rather than simply recreating a conventional tax-preparation office, Intuit has designed the stores around a hybrid model that allows customers to move between TurboTax's digital platform and face-to-face assistance.

Customers can begin a return themselves at home and later have a local expert pick up where they left off, Greene-Lewis said. They can also walk into a store without having decided whether they want someone else to prepare their taxes.

A concierge can help customers determine which documents they need, discuss their tax situation and connect them with an appropriate expert. Customers can then track the progress of their return through the TurboTax app.

"We just want to meet people where they are," Greene-Lewis said. "There are people, as we know, that want to do their taxes online. We have millions of customers that do that. But then we are finding that people are still searching for help."

TurboTax says its tax experts have an average of 13 years of experience.

A Different Kind Of Tax Office

TurboTax is also trying to make its stores look and feel considerably different from the traditional tax-preparation office. The company partnered with global architecture and design firm Gensler on the design of its physical locations, which Greene-Lewis described as Japandi, a style combining Japanese and Scandinavian influences. The stores are intended to provide a calmer environment for people dealing with the often stressful business of preparing their taxes.

"We actually did research to see how people feel in the stores, and we just want them to feel calm in this situation because, as we know, a lot of people are stressed out about their taxes," she said.

The concept includes spaces where customers can sit and work independently as well as areas for meeting tax experts. TurboTax also plans to use the locations for tax and financial-literacy events.

The SoHo flagship even includes a sound bath, Greene-Lewis said. She does not expect Santa Monica's store to have one, although coffee and espresso are part of the concept.

TurboTax describes its stores as modern spaces designed for appointments and walk-ins, where customers can ask questions, begin their own returns with expert guidance or hand the entire job to a tax professional.

Three Floors — And A Rooftop

The building TurboTax has selected gives the company considerably more room than a conventional tax office. City planning records show a new three-story commercial building has been approved for 1408 Third Street Promenade. The 20,625-square-foot, 60-foot-tall project was filed in November 2019, with Blatteis & Schnur Inc. and Armbruster Goldsmith & Delvac LLP listed as the applicants.

Commercial real estate materials for the 1404-1408 Third Street property describe approximately 26,750 square feet across three levels, along with a roughly 5,000-square-foot rooftop. The property was marketed specifically as a potential "flagship retail opportunity."

Greene-Lewis said TurboTax will open two full floors to the public in January before expanding into the third floor and rooftop later in 2027. The company already operates a smaller location in Culver City, which Greene-Lewis said opened during the previous tax season. She said the Santa Monica flagship will be considerably larger.

The expansion is driven in part by where consumers are searching for local tax assistance, according to Greene-Lewis. She said TurboTax expects to have more than 650 locations around the country, with the goal of putting local support within 25 miles of 80 percent of taxpayers who use assisted filing services.

Intuit's most recent published rollout figures describe 20 TurboTax stores and nearly 600 Expert Offices nationwide. For Santa Monica, however, the investment is intended to extend beyond the annual rush to file tax returns.

The flagship will offer access to tax and financial guidance throughout the year, Greene-Lewis said, while also creating local employment opportunities as TurboTax expands its in-person workforce.