Office Space for a Small Business in NYC: Start With the Monthly Budget

To find office space for a startup or small business in Manhattan, set the monthly budget first and let it choose the floor. Decide what the business can pay each month out of revenue. Work out the square feet you need at about 175 per person. Then divide a year of the budget by those square feet: the result is the rent per square foot you can afford. If private floors ask more than that, coworking is the honest answer for now, and for a team under about 15 it usually costs less in total anyway. Touring comes after the arithmetic.

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Show me floors under $50

Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

Turn the monthly number into square feet and a rent per square foot

A business paying rent out of revenue should start from what it can carry in a slow month. Take that figure and run two sums.

Square feet: people who need a desk, times 175. Seated closely at shared tables, about 140 each will do.
Rent per square foot: the monthly budget times twelve, divided by the square feet.

Say the business can carry $8,750 a month for 12 people: 12 times 175 is 2,100 square feet, and $105,000 a year spread over 2,100 square feet is $50 a square foot. That figure is the top of your search, and you have it before opening a listing.

When coworking is the cheaper answer for a small team

A Manhattan coworking desk goes for about $800 to $1,400 a month, furnished and connected. For 12 people that is $9,600 to $16,800 monthly, and the membership can be ended at short notice.

Up to about 15 people, desks usually come out cheaper in total than a private floor once the extras of a lease are counted. A business of 8 to 15 therefore sits on the coworking side of the line unless it needs its own door for clients, privacy or equipment. Coworking, sublease or a private HQ weighs each route.

What a small business pays on top of the rent

Keep part of the budget back for these before fixing the rent figure:

Power, typically $2 to $4 a square foot each year.
The yearly step-up in rent, usually 2.5 to 3 percent.
Security, as cash or a letter of credit, due at signing.
Furniture, at $2,000 to $4,000 a desk bought new, plus cabling and internet.

A furnished floor removes the last line, and a sublease often does too.

What a landlord will ask a small company for

A landlord is deciding whether the rent will keep arriving, so expect three requests.

Financial statements. Years of steady results count in a small business's favor and can bring the security request down.
Security, usually several months of rent.
A personal guarantee from a principal. In New York this is normally a good guy guarantee, which falls away once the business gives notice, vacates and is paid up. An established company with strong financials can sometimes sign without one.

Guarantee wording varies by lease, so have your attorney confirm it.

The search in brief, and whether a broker takes a small requirement

Once the budget is fixed the search is short: a one-page brief, a shortlist, an afternoon touring three to five floors, proposals from the landlords, a letter of intent, then the lease.

A broker does take a small requirement. The guarantee, the yearly increases and the deposit need as much care on a lease for twelve people as on one for a hundred, and in most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee. The floors under $50 on our book are in the block below, and the full list of floors under $50 has its own page.

Floors asking under $50 per square foot

Live from our listings · cheapest first

3 of the 46 floors with a published rent ask under $50 per square foot per year, from 2,978 to 8,308 square feet.

Floors: 3
Sizes: 2,978-8,308 sq ft
Asking rent: $43-$44 / sq ft

Every available floor, with asking rents →

The full guide

This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:

Is a team of ten too small for its own floor in Manhattan?

Not too small, but it is where the comparison is closest. Ten people need about 1,750 square feet, and at that size coworking usually costs less in total. A floor of your own makes sense when clients visit or the work needs privacy. Our book does not always hold a floor that small, and when it does not, we will say so.

How short a lease can a small business sign?

Shorter than most owners assume. Twelve months is possible on a private floor, though two-year and three-year terms are seen more often. A one-year deal is priced higher per square foot.

What does a broker cost a small business looking for an office?

Usually nothing out of pocket. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, and the commission terms on your own deal settle it. A business paying out of revenue should still ask at the start whether any fee could reach it, and what the broker wants signed.

What is the least expensive way into a private office?

Often a sublease: another company's space for the rest of its lease, usually cheaper and faster than a direct deal and taken largely as it stands. The term is whatever remains, and your rights are limited by the original lease. Among direct floors, the lowest asking rents on our book are in the block on this page.

Talk to a broker

Want this answered for your team?

Tell us three things: team size, timing, budget. A first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours, with the asking rent on every floor that publishes one.

Within the houra broker reaches out during business hours, no automated triage
On your sidewe work for you on your search, and the landlord usually pays our fee
Open pricingasking rent published for 46 of 49 floors, size and address for all
300+ officesdelivered in New York, 2M+ sq ft leased

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