Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Firms for a Tech or AI Startup: The Technical Test

A tech or AI startup should judge commercial real estate brokerage firms on a technical brief, not on a pitch. Put three things to each firm: how it confirms a floor's electrical capacity and cooling before you commit to it, how many enclosed rooms and phone booths it would plan for a team that spends its day on video, and which rights it would negotiate for a headcount that could double inside the term. A firm that has placed this kind of tenant answers from past deals. A firm that has not answers in generalities. Our answers follow, beside the floors we list around Union Square.

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Test us with my brief

Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

Three tests a tech team can run on any brokerage firm

Reduce the choice to three things you can check in one conversation.

Alignment. Ask who the firm represents on your deal and have the reply sent to you in writing.
Fluency with your profile. Ask about the last engineering-heavy teams the firm placed: the buildings, the room counts, what was negotiated for growth. Specifics come quickly to a firm that has done it.
Execution after signing. Ask who manages the buildout and whether the firm will put a schedule in writing. A lease signed well and built badly is still a late office.

The general checks on any broker still apply to a tech team, and the broker-selection playbook sets them out.

The technical brief: power, rooms and a headcount that may double

Power and cooling. If any hardware will run in the office, capacity has to be confirmed by the building's engineer in a letter, and early, before a letter of intent is on the table. Ask at which step the firm requests it.
Rooms and booths. Video-heavy teams fill enclosed rooms first. Our working ratio is one enclosed room for every eight people plus phone booths, and a standard fit-out draws fewer booths than a team on video needs. Ask what ratio the firm would put on a test fit and why.
Growth. When headcount can double within a lease, the protection is written into the deal: a right of first offer on adjacent space, the right to sublet, or a shorter term. Ask which of these the firm secured the last time it placed a team like yours.

What an AI startup should look for in an office goes through each requirement in turn.

How Nomad answers the same brief for an AI or software team

On your search, we work for you. Nomad also offers agency leasing and owner representation. Ask us in writing which buildings that covers.

We size against the hiring plan, not the current roster: 175 square feet a person at the headcount you expect 12 to 18 months out, with the room ratio drawn on a test fit before you sign. The buildout is managed inside the same firm, which has 300+ offices delivered, and a custom buildout typically takes 10 to 16 weeks. Every listing shows its address and its size, and asking rents are published wherever the landlord has released one, so the numbers are in front of you before any call. Our client stories name the AI and data companies we have placed.

Why the example floors sit around Union Square

Engineers are hired from every part of the city, so transit reach comes first. At 14th Street the L meets the N/Q/R/W and the 4/5/6, which makes Union Square the best-connected hub below 42nd Street. The Flatiron tech cluster starts a few blocks north, and NYU is minutes away. The live block on this page shows what we list there, with the asking rent wherever one is published; the Union Square guide describes the blocks themselves.

Union Square office space available now

Live from our listings · cheapest first

2 offices are available in Union Square right now, from 2,500 to 13,754 square feet, asking $60 per square foot per year on the one with a published rent.

Floors: 2
Sizes: 2,500-13,754 sq ft
Asking rent: $60 / sq ft

Everything available in Union Square, with photos and rents →

The full guide

This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:

Should an AI startup ask a brokerage firm for past deals with companies like it?

Yes, and ask for detail. A firm that works with this kind of tenant can name the buildings, describe how power was confirmed and say what growth rights ended up in the lease. Client names can be withheld where the work is confidential. Vague answers mean your search would be the firm's training.

At what point in a search should power and cooling be confirmed?

Before the letter of intent, while you still have other floors in play. The confirmation should be a letter from the building's engineer, not a verbal assurance. Where capacity falls short, the upgrade is a real cost, and it is better priced before the terms are set than discovered after.

What does a brokerage firm do for a team whose headcount could double?

It writes room to move into the lease: a first-offer right on neighboring space, sublet and assignment rights, and a term no longer than you can forecast. Lease options explains each.

Does a software team with no hardware on site still need the technical brief?

A shorter one. With everything in the cloud, the power question gives way to fiber and a redundant connection, while room counts and growth rights matter just as much. Meeting rooms and booths fill before desks do, so keep that part.

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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