Bryant Park vs Union Square: Office Space Compared

An $8 gap that two floors invented

Median asking rent in Bryant Park is $96 per square foot per year against $88 in Union Square, a gap of $8 a foot, 9 percent on top of the Union Square number. On a 4,000 square foot suite that is $32,000 a year, about $2,667 a month, which is less than most tenants spend deciding.

Look at how the two medians are built and the 9 percent thins further. Union Square's $88 is the midpoint of exactly two published rents, $115 at 900 Broadway and $60 at 29 West 17th Street, a $55 spread with nothing between them, and the third floor we hold there publishes no rent at all. Bryant Park's $96 comes from four floors asking $65, $95, $96 and $125, the middle two a dollar apart, a median doing honest work.

Both sit above the $75 median across the 49 floors we represent in eleven submarkets, Bryant Park by 28 percent and Union Square by 17, so neither is a value play. Union Square prices the transit hub below 42nd Street and a position minutes from NYU and the Flatiron cluster. Bryant Park prices trophy towers around the park. Asking rent only opens the conversation in either: taking rent lands lower once free rent, the improvement allowance and escalations fold into one effective number.

What each holds, and the comparison that reverses the headline

Three floors make up the Union Square book, 2,500 to 13,754 square feet, roughly 14 to 79 desks at the 175 square feet per person we plan against. Bryant Park is four, 4,109 to 17,296 square feet, roughly 23 to 99. The ends decide it: nothing in Bryant Park serves a team of 14, and nothing in Union Square serves a team of 99.

• Union Square: 29 West 17th Street, Partial 7th Floor, 2,500 sq ft at $60, about $12,500 a month, furnished, wired, exposed ceiling, a plug-and-play sublease through September 2027; 900 Broadway, Suite 202, 4,000 sq ft at $115, about $38,333, with a pantry and conference room in place; 836 Broadway, Entire 2nd Floor, 13,754 sq ft, roughly 79 desks, asking rent unpublished because the landlord has not released one.
• Bryant Park: 1450 Broadway, Entire 40th Floor, 4,109 sq ft at $95, about $32,530 a month, built and furnished; 5 Bryant Park, Entire 33rd Floor, 7,500 sq ft at $96, $60,000, furnished through March 2028; 500 Fifth Avenue, Entire 55th Floor, 6,928 sq ft at $125, $72,167; 1450 Broadway, Entire 4th Floor, 17,296 sq ft at $65, $93,687.

Now run the only true head to head the two books allow. Both submarkets have a floor for a team of about 23: Suite 202 at 900 Broadway, 4,000 feet at $115, about $38,333 a month, and the entire 40th at 1450 Broadway, 4,109 feet at $95, about $32,530. Bryant Park is 109 feet larger and $5,803 a month cheaper, roughly $69,600 a year, on the single comparison where the medians promised the opposite. Medians describe books. Floors describe deals.

Getting there

Bryant Park runs B/D/F/M, 7, N/Q/R/W at 42nd. Union Square runs 4/5/6, N/Q/R/W and L all at 14th Street. The N/Q/R/W is the overlap, so a slice of your staff reaches either address without changing trains and everyone else feels the difference twice a day.

Union Square's case is its catchment. Its own description calls it the best-connected transit hub below 42nd Street, with the 4/5/6, N/Q/R/W and L arriving in one station, which is why teams hiring young and living downtown settle there. Bryant Park answers to 42nd Street, four services plus a short walk to Grand Central, which is what a company drawing from the northern suburbs needs.

It is also the tighter market of the two, three floors against four, and small floors there move quickly enough that a team set on 14th Street should expect to tour the week something surfaces.

The recommendation, by tenant type

Under about 20 people, Union Square wins by default: it holds the only floor that small. 29 West 17th Street, 2,500 feet at $60, about $12,500 a month, comes furnished and wired as a sublease through September 2027. You take it as it stands, with no improvement allowance and an end date somebody else picked. For a company of 14 that cannot forecast two years out, good trades.

Between roughly 23 and 45 people, take Bryant Park, and take the entire 40th at 1450 Broadway. It is cheaper than the Union Square suite of the same size, it arrives built and furnished so most of the buildout argument disappears, and it sits $30 a foot below the trophy floor at 500 Fifth Avenue.

Above about 75, the choice is the entire 2nd at 836 Broadway against the entire 4th at 1450 Broadway, and only one publishes a rent. The Bryant Park plate asks $65 for 17,296 feet, below the citywide median; the Union Square floor is 13,754 feet at a number the landlord will set against the tenant and the term. Negotiate the unpriced one knowing exactly what the priced one costs.

Pay the Union Square premium only when the address is doing work: consumer and creative businesses recruiting downtown, and teams whose people would read 42nd Street as a step backward. That is a real reason. Paying $115 a foot for a room clients never enter is not.

The practical next step

One subway ride separates these two, and we can walk four to six floors across both in an afternoon. Bring the person who will run the office day to day, not only the person signing the lease.

We represent tenants only, publish every rent we have and say plainly when a landlord has not given us one. Send the headcount you carry now, the number you expect in three years and the ceiling you will not cross, and we will price both across the full term rather than per foot.