When to Start: Commercial Real Estate Brokers on the Startup Office Leasing Calendar

Path one, counted back: a furnished or pre-built floor

Work backward from the day the team must be at its desks.

• Two to four weeks before it: the lease is signed and the floor is made ready.
• Before that, three to five weeks: the attorneys turn the letter of intent into a lease.
• Before that, one to two weeks: the letter of intent, where rent, term and concessions are settled.
• Before that: the tours, three to five floors in one afternoon, and a decision within days.

Run tightly, with the steps overlapping, that is the six to eight weeks a decisive team needs. Counted loosely it is closer to a quarter, which is why a team that needs desks on the first of June should be touring in March. The furnished and pre-built floors we list are in the block below.

Path two, counted back: a floor built to your design

A custom buildout typically takes 10 to 16 weeks from signature. Design uses two to three of those weeks, permits and long-lead orders another three or four, and construction itself six to nine. Put the search and the lease ahead of that and the whole run is four to six months. For desks on the first of January, that means a signed lease by late September and tours in the summer.

How fast a startup can move into a custom office breaks the construction weeks down.

What slows a deal, and what can run at the same time

Most lost weeks are lost by the tenant, not the market.

• A brief with no budget, so the tour list keeps growing.
• Terms reopened after the letter of intent.
• Board approval sought after the floor is found, when it could have run alongside the search.
• A landmarked building, which can add two to four weeks of approvals.

The cure is overlap. Price the buildout while the lease is being negotiated, begin design before signing, file the permit on the day of signature, and order glass and electrical gear early. Taken one after another, the steps add up. Taken together, they can save a month or more. The search-to-keys timeline follows each phase.

What the broker does to protect the date

• Fixes the brief on the first call: headcount, date, budget, two neighborhoods.
• Sorts the shortlist by realistic move-in date, with pre-built floors marked.
• Gets the business terms into a complete letter of intent, so the lease has little left to argue over.
• Brings Nomad's construction team in before signing where a buildout is planned.
• Tells you early if the date and the plan do not fit, while one of them can still change.

What a pre-built floor gives up in exchange for speed

Choice, mostly. You take the landlord's layout and finishes with light changes, concessions are smaller than on a custom deal, and only some of the floors that fit your size come pre-built. A custom lease brings an improvement allowance and free rent that grow with the term, and a space drawn around how your team works. If the date is fixed and near, take the pre-built floor. If the date can move and the office has a particular job to do, build.