How Much Space? How Commercial Property Leasing Agents Size Startup Offices

The sizing worksheet a leasing agent fills in first

A search needs a square footage before it needs listings, and that figure comes from four lines.

• Headcount on move-in day. Count the people who will have a desk, not everyone on payroll.
• The planning figure. Allow 175 rentable square feet for each person, which covers the desk plus a share of the meeting rooms, pantry and walkways. Drop to about 140 for an open plan with few rooms, or go up to about 225 if private offices are the rule.
• The hiring margin. A startup that expects to hire usually adds 15 to 25 percent, so the office still fits in its second year.
• The result, written as a range. Worked for 35 people: 35 times 175 is 6,125 square feet, and with the hiring margin the range runs from about 7,000 to 7,700.

The office space calculator runs the same arithmetic for any headcount and layout.

Rentable square feet are not the square feet your desks sit on

Every listing quotes rentable square feet, a figure that includes a share of the building's lobby, corridors and mechanical rooms. The area inside your own walls is the usable figure, and it runs 15 to 25 percent below rentable.

The 175 planning figure is already stated in rentable terms, so it can be held directly against a listing. What it cannot show is how one particular floor lays out. Two floors with the same rentable number can seat different headcounts once the columns, the elevator core and the window line are drawn in. Rentable versus usable square feet explains how the gap is measured.

When the agent orders a test fit, and what it settles

A test fit is an architect's quick layout that draws your desks, meeting rooms and phone booths onto one specific floor. It is the check on the worksheet: the arithmetic says how much space, and the drawing says whether this floor delivers it.

We ask for one once the shortlist has been toured and before a letter of intent, on the finalists only. Landlords often pay for the drawing through the building's own architect. A floor that cannot hold the team drops out before anyone has negotiated over it, and a floor that holds the team with room to spare may mean you can lease less. The test fit entry goes through the drawing itself.

From square feet to a monthly budget, in brief

Square footage sets the rent line, and several costs sit above it. The agent writes them into the brief so the budget is a monthly figure and not just a rate.

• Power: electricity runs roughly $2 to $4 per square foot per year.
• Annual escalations, roughly 2.5 to 3 percent, fixed in the lease.
• A security deposit or a letter of credit.
• Furniture and cabling.
• Buildout cost above the landlord's allowance, where the floor needs work.

The floors below are sized for a team of about 35, each shown with its square footage and asking rent, so the worksheet can be checked against real space.