Commercial Leasing for Startups: The First Lease After Coworking
Commercial leasing for a startup usually begins when a team of 15 to 25 outgrows coworking. A desk in Manhattan coworking costs roughly $800 to $1,400 a month. Below about 15 people it usually costs less than a floor of your own, and above about 20 a private floor usually costs less. Nomad takes a team through that step: the brief, a shortlist, the tours and the negotiation. Desks on a furnished or pre-built floor are usually usable two to four weeks from signing, and the plan keeps the membership running until the new desks are in, so nobody is left without a place to work.
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Send me floors for 20Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group
The arithmetic that says it is time to leave coworking
At $800 to $1,400 a desk, 20 desks cost $16,000 to $28,000 a month, and every hire adds another desk fee. A private floor is priced by area and not by the head. Twenty people need about 3,500 square feet, and the rent on that floor does not step up when the next person joins.
To run your own numbers, take any floor in the block on this page, which is sized for 20 people. Multiply its square feet by its asking rent and divide by twelve. Add electricity, which runs about $2 to $4 per square foot annually. Put the result next to your coworking invoice.
What changes when you sign a lease in place of a membership
- One invoice becomes several: rent, electricity, internet and insurance, plus cleaning where the lease does not include it.
- You commit to a term. A year is possible on a private floor, and two or three years is more usual.
- The landlord asks for security: a deposit or letter of credit, plus in many cases a founder's good guy guarantee.
- The services an operator handled quietly, from reception to the printer, each need an owner.
What you get in return is your own door, your own rooms and a cost that stops rising with every hire. When to leave coworking covers the signs in more depth.
What Nomad does at this step, in order
- The brief. We size the floor from the headcount you expect in 18 months, set the monthly ceiling from your current invoice, and pick two neighborhoods from where the team lives.
- The shortlist. A first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours, with the size and asking rent of each floor.
- The tours. Three to five floors in one afternoon, then a second look at the best two.
- The negotiation. We get proposals, settle the term, the free rent and the security in a letter of intent, and work the lease alongside your attorney.
Planning the overlap so the team always has desks
The failure to avoid is a gap: the membership ends, the new floor is not ready, and a working company has nowhere to sit. The plan below is built to prevent it.
- Read the notice terms in the membership agreement before the lease is signed.
- Keep the membership through any fit-out and for one week past move-in.
- Choose a furnished or pre-built floor if the date is tight: desks are usually in place two to four weeks from signing, against 10 to 16 weeks for custom construction.
The few weeks of paying twice are the cheapest insurance in the move.
Floors that fit a team of 20
Live from our listings · 6 of the 20, smallest firstA team of 20 plans on about 3,500 square feet at 175 a person. 20 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 3,500 to 6,300 square feet, asking $50 to $135 per square foot per year.
- Floors
- 20
- Sizes
- 3,500-6,100 sq ft
- Asking rent
- $50-$135 / sq ft
- 115 West 30th Street, Partial 4th Floor 3,500 sq ft $55/sq ft Chelsea about 20 people
- 110 Greene Street, Partial 5th Floor 3,750 sq ft $95/sq ft SoHo about 21 people
- 900 Broadway, Suite 202 4,000 sq ft $115/sq ft Flatiron about 23 people
- 60 Charlton Street, Partial 8th Floor 5,003 sq ft $120/sq ft SoHo about 29 people
- 213 West 35th Street, 10th Floor 5,250 sq ft $50/sq ft Penn Plaza about 30 people
- 60 East 42nd Street, Partial 13th Floor 5,772 sq ft $72/sq ft Grand Central about 33 people
The full guide
This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:
Related topics
- Commercial Brokerage Services, and What Each Delivers to an NYC Office Tenant
- A Commercial Lease Broker for Growing Companies: A Lease With Room to Grow
- Commercial Lease Brokers in NYC for Professional Firms: Law, Accounting, Finance
- Commercial Leasing Agents and Brokers in NYC: Who Is Who on an Office Tour
How quickly can a 20-person startup be in its own floor?
On a furnished or pre-built floor, usually two to four weeks after signing, and six to eight weeks from the first tour for a team that decides quickly. Furnished and move-in-ready floors are listed together.
Does leaving coworking mean giving up flexibility?
Less than founders fear. Short terms exist, a sublet clause lets you hand the space on, and Flex by Nomad is the furnished, flexible-term version of a private floor. Shorter terms do carry a higher rent per square foot.
What does Nomad charge a startup for this?
In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, so this step usually adds no broker bill for a startup. A team used to one membership invoice should still ask, on the first call, whether any fee would be its own. A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours.
Is a first lease after coworking a direct lease or a sublease?
Either. A sublease is often faster and cheaper and runs only as long as the original lease. A direct lease brings free rent, an allowance and options. Coworking, sublease or a private HQ sets them side by side.
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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