Chelsea vs Flatiron: Office Space Compared

The $13 gap and where it actually lives

Our 9 Chelsea floors carry a median of $56 per square foot per year, our 6 Flatiron floors $72, a $16 spread that reads as 22% cheaper looking west and 29% dearer looking east. Against the citywide median of $75 across our book, Chelsea sits roughly 25% under and Flatiron a few percent under it. On 5,000 square feet, $16 a foot is $80,000 a year and $400,000 across a five-year term before escalations.

Flatiron does not charge more for the same thing. The gap comes from the shape of the two ranges. Chelsea runs $44 to $64, a twenty dollar band with nothing at either extreme, while Flatiron runs $43 to $115 and its cheapest floor is a dollar under anything we hold in Chelsea. All of the distance between the two medians is manufactured at the top, by a penthouse asking $115 and a Broadway floor at $92, a tier Chelsea's loft stock does not price against. Budget from the band rather than the median, and treat asking rent as an opening position that concessions will move by several dollars a foot.

What we hold in each, and which teams fit

Chelsea gives us 7 floors between 2,937 and 18,668 square feet, roughly 17 to 107 desks at the 175 square feet per person we plan around. Flatiron gives us 6 floors between 2,940 and 10,562 square feet, roughly 17 to 60 desks. The bottom of the two markets is three square feet apart, so a team of 17 is choosing on price, commute and the building itself.

Above about 55 people they part company. Flatiron's largest availability is 10,562 square feet at 30 West 21st Street, and that is the 9th and 10th floors taken together rather than one plate, so a company that wants everyone in sight of each other is capped lower. Chelsea holds the only two floors in either market over 11,000 square feet, 17,610 at 151 West 26th Street and 18,668 at 275 Seventh Avenue. A team of 80 has a Chelsea answer today and no Flatiron answer.

In the middle band, where most tenants shop, the price logic inverts. A company needing 8,000 square feet can take 8,308 in Flatiron at $43 a foot, cheaper per square foot than anything on our Chelsea list, where the advantage at that size is choice rather than price.

Getting there, and getting your people there

Chelsea's stops are A/C/E, 1, F/M at 14th and 23rd. Flatiron's are N/Q/R/W, 4/5/6, F/M, L at 14th and 23rd. They share the F/M and they share the cross streets, which is how close these two really are. What differs is the side of the island your staff arrive on: Chelsea covers the West Side and adds PATH at 23rd Street for anyone hiring in New Jersey, while Flatiron picks up the East Side 4/5/6, the Broadway lines and the L.

Run your team's home stations against both addresses before you shortlist. Rent can be renegotiated at renewal and a commute cannot, and fifteen minutes of median door to door time shows up in who accepts your offers and, later, in who quietly leaves. If the people you most need to keep live off the L, the Flatiron premium is partly a recruiting cost.

Our recommendation, by tenant type

Clients ask us to pick one, so here is the pick.

• Over 60 people: Chelsea. Arithmetic, not preference. Flatiron has no floor for you right now and Chelsea has two.
• A funded team of 15 to 30 hiring senior people and bringing investors into the office: Flatiron, and pay the premium without flinching. On 4,000 square feet the whole gap is about $64,000 a year, less than one junior hire, and a single-tenant floor with your name at the elevator earns that back in recruiting.
• Budget as the binding constraint, or a headcount you cannot honestly forecast: Chelsea, with a hard look at any sublease. The narrow $44 to $64 band makes it difficult to badly overpay, and a short as-is sublease is the right trade when three years out is a guess.

The case for spending more is narrower than most tenants assume, and it is real. Pay for Flatiron when the office is a hiring instrument. Take Chelsea when it is a place to work.

How to settle this in one afternoon

The two markets sit minutes apart, we hold 15 floors between them, and four to six can be walked in one afternoon, which settles the question faster than any spreadsheet can.

Bring the headcount plan for two years out, since the floor that fits now is the one you outgrow first. Ask for rentable and usable square footage on everything you see, because loss factor varies building to building and two floors quoted at the same rent are not the same working space. Get a test fit on your finalists before you negotiate, and put DOB filing and buildout time into the move date. Send us the size and the budget and we will set the route.