Commercial Lease Advisory for Startups: The Advice to Get Before You Tour Anything
Lease advisory is advice on an office lease, given before and during the deal: how much space to take, for how long, at what total cost, and through which kind of deal. For a startup signing its first lease, most of that work happens before any tour. A fee-based advisor sells the analysis by the hour or for a flat fee. A broker gives the same advice as part of a search and is paid a commission when a lease is signed, which the landlord pays in most transactions. Nomad works the second way, settling four decisions with you and then running the search.
Rather have a broker answer it for your team?Tell us team size and timing. A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours.
Plan my first leaseUpdated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group
What lease advisory means when the lease is your first
An established tenant buys lease advisory to check a lease it already has. A startup has no lease yet, so the advice is about choices: the ones that are cheap to change this month and expensive to change once a landlord's proposal is on the table.
If you want that advice with no transaction attached, tell us on the first call, so the arrangement is clear to both sides before any work begins.
The four decisions a startup settles before touring
- How much space. Start from 175 square feet per person, then adjust: about 140 in a dense open plan, about 225 if many people need a door. A team with open roles usually adds 15 to 25 percent.
- What term. A private floor is available for as little as 12 months, and 24 or 36 is the more usual choice. The shorter the term, the higher the rent per square foot.
- What all-in budget. Asking rent is the start. Electricity adds roughly $2 to $4 a square foot each year, rent escalates by about 2.5 to 3 percent annually, the landlord holds a deposit or letter of credit, and furniture, cabling and any buildout beyond the allowance are yours to fund.
- Which route. A direct lease, a sublease, or a furnished floor. Below about 15 people coworking usually costs less than any of them, which is worth hearing before you tour. Coworking, sublease or a private HQ compares the routes.
Each answer narrows the next. A 15-person team that wants two years and no construction is looking for a furnished or pre-built floor of roughly 2,600 square feet.
After the four answers: shortlist, tours, letter of intent, lease
With the decisions made, send us headcount, timing and budget. A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours, and a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours. The first tour covers three to five floors in a single afternoon.
Next we ask the landlords of the floors you liked for proposals, put them on one basis, and negotiate the letter of intent, the short document that fixes rent, term, free rent and security before lawyers draft. The lease follows: your attorney reviews it, and we hold the landlord to the terms already agreed. The short-term lease playbook shows how the term you chose changes the offer that comes back.
When a startup should start, counting back from move-in
Begin with the day the desks must be occupied and count backward. A pre-built floor needs six to eight weeks between the first tour and move-in. A custom buildout needs four to six months, since construction alone typically takes 10 to 16 weeks after signing. Leave time ahead of the first tour for the four decisions.
The floors below are sized for a team of about 15 on the 175 square foot rule. They are a quick test of the first and third decisions: does the size look right, and can the company carry the monthly cost once the extras are added?
Floors that fit a team of 15
Live from our listings · 6 of the 8, smallest firstA team of 15 plans on about 2,625 square feet at 175 a person. 8 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 2,625 to 4,725 square feet, asking $44 to $115 per square foot per year.
- Floors
- 8
- Sizes
- 2,937-4,109 sq ft
- Asking rent
- $44-$115 / sq ft
- 153 West 27th Street, Partial 11th Floor 2,937 sq ft $60/sq ft Chelsea about 17 people
- 900 Broadway, Partial 9th Floor 2,940 sq ft $92/sq ft Flatiron about 17 people
- 153 W 27th Street, Partial 3rd Floor 2,978 sq ft $44/sq ft Chelsea about 17 people
- 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
- 1450 Broadway, Entire 40th Floor 4,109 sq ft $95/sq ft Bryant Park about 23 people
The full guide
This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:
Related topics
- Commercial Lease Consultants or a Broker: What an NYC Tenant Needs at Renewal
- What a Commercial Leasing Consultant Does for an NYC Startup, Week by Week
- CRE Advisory for Scaling Teams: Advice That Continues After the Lease Is Signed
- An Office Deal a Board Can Approve: Brokerage for a Venture-Backed Company
Is lease advisory a separate service from brokerage at Nomad?
No. On a search the advice is part of the brokerage. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, so a startup usually sees no separate bill for the advice. The brokerage page describes the whole service.
When does paying a fee-based lease advisor make sense for a startup?
When nothing is being leased, or when the advice should cost the same whatever the size of the lease. A founder who wants an independent read on terms already negotiated, for instance, is buying analysis, and an hourly or flat fee fits that.
Whose side is Nomad on while it advises us?
On your search, we work for you. Nomad is a licensed New York real estate broker and also offers agency leasing and owner representation. If one of the buildings we lease for an owner ends up among your finalists, we are a dual agent there, and New York law makes that conditional on informed consent from you and from the owner.
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
Or call 646-688-3158
