Office Tenant Buildout in NYC, Step by Step: Stages, Permits and Weeks
An office tenant buildout is the construction that turns a leased floor into a working office, built to the tenant's plan and paid for in part by the landlord's allowance. In New York it moves through five stages: a test fit, design, permits with long-lead orders, construction, and closeout. A custom job typically takes 10 to 16 weeks from signed lease to keys. Design accounts for two to three of those weeks, permits and procurement for three to four, and construction for six to nine. The schedule is won early: teams that begin design while the lease is still under negotiation overlap the stages and finish weeks sooner.
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Send me floors for 40Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group
The five stages of a tenant buildout, and the weeks each takes
- Test fit, before the lease. An architect draws your desks and rooms on the actual floor plan. It shows whether the floor works and gives a contractor something to price. What a test fit shows explains who usually pays for it.
- Design, two to three weeks. The test fit becomes construction drawings. It moves as fast as your decisions.
- Permits and long-lead items, three to four weeks. Filings go to the Department of Buildings and drawings go to the landlord, while glass, doors, air-conditioning equipment and switchgear are ordered.
- Construction, six to nine weeks on a typical full floor: demolition, rough work, then ceilings, lighting and finishes.
- Closeout, about a week. The punch list is signed off, warranties and as-built drawings are collected, and the floor passes to whoever will run it.
Permits needed for a fit-out, and why design should start before signing
A fit-out that moves walls, plumbing or electrical distribution generally needs Department of Buildings filings, and it needs the landlord to approve the drawings. Every building adds alteration rules of its own: which contractors may work there, the insurance they carry, when the freight elevator is free. Your architect and contractor should confirm what your scope requires in that building.
None of this can be hurried, but it can be overlapped. When design begins at the letter of intent stage, the drawings are ready to file the day the lease is signed and the slow items can be ordered with the filing. Done one after another, the same steps cost extra weeks.
The cost lines of a tenant buildout, and the two that swing it
The cost lines are partitions, doors and glass; air distribution; electrical and data; ceilings and lighting; the pantry and any plumbing; and finishes. Two of them swing the total: glass fronts and wet work. A room with a glass front or plumbing costs several times what the same area costs left open.
The landlord's allowance pays part of the bill, against invoices, and its size is negotiated alongside the rent. That is the reason to have a contractor price the test fit before signing. The tenant improvement allowance covers how it is paid out and what it leaves to you.
The tenant buildout mistakes that add months
- Slow decisions in design, which push back every later date.
- Ordering long-lead items after the permit comes through, not alongside the filing.
- Forgetting that the landlord reviews drawings on its own calendar.
- Changing the scope once construction has begun.
- Building rules nobody priced: a landmarked facade, union requirements, short freight hours.
All five can be spotted before the lease is signed. The buildout cost and timeline guide takes each in turn. The floors below are sized for about 40 people at 175 square feet a person, the scale this guide has in mind.
Floors that fit a team of 40
Live from our listings · 6 of the 13, smallest firstA team of 40 plans on about 7,000 square feet at 175 a person. 13 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 7,000 to 12,600 square feet, asking $43 to $200 per square foot per year on the 11 with a published rent.
- Floors
- 13
- Sizes
- 7,047-12,500 sq ft
- Asking rent
- $43-$200 / sq ft
- 50 Greene Street, 3rd Floor 7,300 sq ft $98/sq ft SoHo about 70 people
- 45 West 45th Street, Entire 10th Floor 8,230 sq ft rent on request Midtown about 47 people
- 137 East 25th Street, 6th Floor 8,308 sq ft $43/sq ft Flatiron about 47 people
- 151 West 26th Street, Partial 10th Floor 9,000 sq ft $64/sq ft Chelsea about 51 people
- 127 West 26th Street, Entire 7th Floor 9,500 sq ft $50/sq ft Chelsea about 54 people
- 1235 Broadway, Entire 4th Floor 9,500 sq ft $62/sq ft NoMad about 54 people
The full guide
This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:
Related topics
- Office Renovation for Manhattan Startups, Run by the Team That Did Your Lease
- Office Fit Out vs Refurbishment: What the Choice Changes for an NYC Tenant
- Flexible Workspace Design: Choosing an NYC Floor That Can Change With the Team
- Hybrid Office Design in NYC: Size the Floor First, Then Lay It Out
How long does a tenant buildout take for a 40-person office?
Plan on 10 to 16 weeks from the signed lease to keys for a custom buildout of a full floor at that size. Where a project lands inside that range depends mostly on how quickly design decisions are made and whether the slow items were ordered early, and much less on the construction crew.
Who files the permits for an office buildout?
On a tenant build, generally the tenant's own design team, working from the construction drawings, with the landlord approving the same set. Which filings a scope needs, and who has to sign them, is a question for your architect, so bring that team in early.
Do we pay rent while the buildout is under construction?
Only if the lease says so. Tenants usually negotiate free rent long enough to cover construction, and a rent start that follows delivery of the space, not a fixed calendar date. Both points are agreed in the letter of intent and confirmed in the lease.
Can the landlord build the space for us instead?
Yes. In a turnkey deal the landlord's contractor builds to an agreed plan, which means less work for you and less control. In a tenant build you hire the contractor and the allowance reimburses the cost. Which structure you get is negotiated. Buildout, defined compares the two.
Talk to a broker
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