17 State Street: Office Space for Lease

The one floor available right now

A single space sits on our book at 17 State Street, and it is the second largest floor we currently represent in FiDi.

• Partial 26th Floor, 6,606 square feet, asking $79 per square foot per year. That is $521,874 a year and roughly $43,490 a month before electricity, and it seats about 38 people at the 175 square feet per person we plan to, which leaves room for meeting rooms and a pantry. A denser open plan takes 47; private offices bring it nearer 29.

Our record describes a new prebuilt with direct elevator exposure, panoramic harbor and Statue of Liberty views, and access to a new tenant amenity center and a 25,000 square foot renovated outdoor plaza. We hold a floor plan and our own photography, so a team can test its headcount against a real layout before touring. At 38 desks that is about $1,144 per seat per month.

What $79 means against the market

The four floors we represent in FiDi run $60 to $115 per square foot per year with a median of $71.50, which puts the submarket about 5% under the $75 citywide median across our availability. Against that FiDi median, $79 is a premium of about 10%.

Size explains part of the spread and condition explains the rest. The floor setting the low end, 45 Broadway at 2,624 square feet asking $60, is under half this size and not one a 38 person company would shortlist. Among downtown floors above 5,000 square feet, the set reads $64 at 32 Old Slip for 6,997 square feet, $79 here, and $115 at 4 World Trade Center for 5,023.

Our honest read is that $79 prices above the FiDi market and comfortably below the tower rate. The gap over 32 Old Slip is what a delivered prebuilt with a harbor view costs against a larger floor a few blocks east, and if that fit-out has no value to you, $15 per square foot is close to $99,000 a year here, which earns 32 Old Slip the same morning.

The submarket around the building

The trains are the strongest practical argument the address makes: 4/5, 2/3, R/W, 1 and J/Z at Fulton and Wall Street, PATH and the Oculus at the World Trade Center, and nearly every line within a ten-minute walk. Hiring across the boroughs and out into New Jersey rarely stalls on the commute.

The district is Manhattan's original downtown, and the residential conversion that followed 2000 built a genuine neighborhood around the towers. Tenants who choose it trade proximity to Midtown for rents well below Midtown South at equivalent quality, and for harbor views the same budget does not buy elsewhere.

Within a short walk our book also holds 32 Old Slip at 6,997 square feet, 4 World Trade Center at 5,023 and 45 Broadway at 2,624, the whole of our current downtown availability. A requirement under 2,600 square feet or over 7,000 has to cross into Tribeca, Battery Park City or Seaport.

How to evaluate the floor, and what really sets the cost

An hour on the floor earns its keep only if it settles what the listing cannot. A partial floor has a neighbor by definition, so establish who shares the elevator landing and where the demising line runs. Prebuilt is used loosely, so walk the space with the plan in hand and get in writing which partitions, millwork and furniture stay. Settle whether the offering is direct or a sublease, since that alone changes the term, the buildout money and who you negotiate with.

Treat 6,606 as a rentable figure rather than the area you can furnish. Manhattan loss factors typically run 15-25%, so the usable floor behind that number lands near 4,950 to 5,600 square feet once corridors, core and restrooms come out. Run the desk count against the plan.

Base rent covers occupancy and, in most Manhattan leases, cleaning of the office areas. Electricity is billed on top, typically $2 to $4 per square foot per year, or $1,100 to $2,200 a month at this size, and internet, insurance, overtime HVAC and the tax and operating escalations ride separately. The security package, usually a letter of credit with a good guy guarantee behind it, surprises younger companies most.

Blended rent across the term decides the real cost. An unnegotiated 3% escalation turns $79 into roughly $89 by the fifth year and averages near $84 over five years, while three months free takes about 5% off. A prebuilt needs less improvement allowance than raw space, so the leverage moves toward free rent, the escalation cap, the security and the restoration clause.

How Nomad works on this floor

We represent tenants and never landlords, so there is no version of this where we sit on both sides of the table at 17 State Street. The rent, the size and the approximate monthly are published rather than held back, because a withheld number is usually one about to be marked up.

Getting on the floor is straightforward: we can generally arrange the Partial 26th Floor inside the same week, and we will walk 32 Old Slip and 4 World Trade Center on the same trip so the $79 gets judged against something. Having run 300+ buildouts across New York, we can also tell you what changing the prebuilt would cost, which usually decides between a delivered floor and a cheaper raw one.