Commercial Lease Consultants or a Broker: What an NYC Tenant Needs at Renewal
Commercial lease consultants sell analysis to companies that already hold a lease: a lease audit, an occupancy cost model, a check of the operating expense pass-throughs, and advice on a renewal. They usually charge by the hour or a flat fee. A broker does a transaction, a renewal or a move, and is paid a commission when it closes. Hire a consultant when there is no deal to do, or when you want advice priced apart from the deal. Hire a broker when the lease is ending and the landlord's renewal number has to be tested against other floors.
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Test my renewal offerUpdated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group
Consultant and broker, compared for a tenant already in its space
- What you get. A consultant delivers a report: what your lease obliges you to pay, where the landlord's bills depart from it, and what the space costs each year in total. A broker delivers a signed deal: a renewal on new terms, or a lease somewhere else.
- How each is paid. A consultant bills by the hour or at a flat fee, whether or not anything changes. A broker earns a commission at signing.
- When each fits. A consultant fits mid-lease, when nothing is being negotiated. A broker fits in the final 18 months or so, when something is.
The renewal: priced against what your landlord has to beat
A renewal offer usually arrives as the old lease with a new rent. Whether that rent is fair cannot be answered from inside the building. It is answered by what comparable floors offer now, free rent and improvement allowance included, because that is what your landlord would have to match to replace you.
The floors below are that comparison in the middle price band: space a tenant could move to, each with its size and asking rent. A landlord who knows you have toured alternatives and hold a written proposal negotiates differently from one who knows you have not looked. Renew or relocate runs the full stay-or-move sum.
What an existing lease costs beyond the asking rent
Consultants and brokers start from the same model, and a tenant should have one before any renewal talk. Base rent is the largest line and not the only one.
- Electricity, at roughly $2 to $4 per square foot per year, by submeter or as a fixed charge.
- Escalations of roughly 2.5 to 3 percent a year, plus tax and operating increases passed through above the base year.
- The security deposit or letter of credit, which is money tied up for the term.
A renewal is the moment to reopen each of them. The escalations can be renegotiated, and a deposit posted when the company was young can be argued down after years of rent paid on time. What office space costs prices every line.
How Nomad works on a renewal or a relocation
The work starts 12 to 18 months before expiry, while alternatives still exist and the landlord knows it. We read the lease for its dates and options, survey what else fits, tour the realistic alternatives with you, and collect proposals. Then the renewal is negotiated as a new deal: free rent on the new term, an allowance to refresh the space, the escalation reset, and expansion or contraction rights matched to the plan.
On your search, we work for you. We also offer agency leasing and owner representation, so ask whether we lease your current building, or any alternative, for its owner. A commission is earned when a renewal or a new lease is signed, and in most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee. A renewal in place is one of the cases where that can differ, so ask how we would be paid on yours before we begin.
Floors asking $50 to $75 per square foot
Live from our listings · 6 of the 20, cheapest first20 of the 46 floors with a published rent ask $50 to $75 per square foot per year, from 2,500 to 27,344 square feet.
- Floors
- 20
- Sizes
- 2,500-27,344 sq ft
- Asking rent
- $50-$72 / sq ft
- 213 West 35th Street, 10th Floor 5,250 sq ft $50/sq ft Penn Plaza about 30 people
- 115 West 30th Street, Partial 4th Floor 3,500 sq ft $55/sq ft Chelsea about 20 people
- 104 West 27th Street, Entire 9th Floor 7,047 sq ft $59/sq ft Chelsea about 40 people
- 153 West 27th Street, Partial 11th Floor 2,937 sq ft $60/sq ft Chelsea about 17 people
- 32 Old Slip, Partial 32nd Floor 6,997 sq ft $64/sq ft FiDi about 40 people
- One Soho Square, Partial 2nd Floor 27,344 sq ft $68/sq ft SoHo about 156 people
The full guide
This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:
Related topics
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- 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
- Full-Service Commercial Real Estate Brokerage: What It Includes, Search to Running Office
Do we need a lease consultant if we already have a broker?
Only for work the broker is not doing. A broker handling your renewal should already model occupancy cost and read the lease for dates and options. A separate consultant earns the fee on a detailed audit of past operating expense bills, which is accounting work more than deal work.
What does a lease audit check?
Whether the landlord's bills match what the lease allows, chiefly the operating expense and tax increases passed through above the base year and the electricity charge. Ask your attorney or accountant to confirm any finding against the lease itself before you raise it with the landlord.
Can Nomad give renewal advice without running a transaction?
Raise it when we first speak, so the arrangement is settled before anyone starts work. A commission depends on a signed deal; advice on its own is a different engagement, agreed separately. Our brokerage page explains both.
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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