CRE Advisory for Scaling Teams: Advice That Continues After the Lease Is Signed

Advisory versus brokerage for a team of 40 to 80

The useful distinction is what you receive and how it is paid for. Advisory produces analysis, billed on time or a flat fee. Brokerage produces a signed lease, paid by commission.

A scaling company usually needs both at once, because at this size every analysis ends in a transaction. A headcount forecast becomes a square footage, the square footage becomes a shortlist, and the rights you want become clauses in a letter of intent. If you want the analysis alone, with no search attached, say so when we first talk.

What a scaling team needs advised before it signs

• Size for the next 18 to 24 months. Take the headcount in the plan your board has seen and multiply by 175 square feet per person. A company going from 50 to 80 people sizes for the larger number, or secures the right to grow into it.
• Expansion rights. An expansion option on named space, or a right of first offer on the adjacent floor, so that growth does not mean moving. Lease options explains each right and its notice window.
• Renewal rights. An option to extend, with the method for setting the new rent written down now.
• Sublet flexibility. An assignment and sublet clause loose enough that surplus space can be handed on if the plan changes direction.

These rights cost a landlord little on signing day and are worth most around year three.

After the lease: build, run, expand

Build. A custom buildout typically takes 10 to 16 weeks. Nomad's construction management team coordinates design and the test fit, handles filings and the landlord's approvals, and manages the contractor. One firm negotiates the lease and runs the build, so design can begin while the lease is still being negotiated.

Run. Facilities management takes over once the team is in: cleaning, repairs and preventive maintenance, vendors, and getting the building's staff to act when a problem starts outside your floor.

Expand. The dates in the lease decide this. Each option has to be claimed in writing within its notice period, and missing that date normally forfeits it, so every option date goes on a calendar the day the lease is signed.

What a scaling team brings to the first conversation

• The headcount plan: today, and at 12 and 24 months.
• A budget, as a monthly figure the finance lead will stand behind.
• Timing: when the current space runs out, or when desks are needed.
• The neighborhoods you will not compromise on, and the ones you would consider.

With those, a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours. The floors below are sized for about 50 people on the 175 square foot rule, a starting band for a team in this range.