CRE Brokerage Firms for a Growth-Stage Company of 50: Testing the Claim
Nearly every CRE brokerage firm says it knows growth-stage companies. A team of 40 to 80 people can check that with one request: the tenant leases the firm closed during the past two years between roughly 7,000 and 14,000 square feet, in the neighborhoods you would consider, with their terms. Client names can come off. The size band matters because the owners, the buildings and the concessions a broker meets at 9,000 square feet are not the ones met at 3,000 or at 100,000. A firm with real work in your band can assemble that list quickly. A firm without it will send a brochure.
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Send me floors for 50Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group
Why a floor of about 9,000 square feet is its own market
Brokers learn by repetition. Someone who spends the year leasing large blocks to corporate tenants and someone who places teams of 30 to 50 deal with different owners, walk different buildings and see different concession packages. Neither knows more. They know different things.
So a firm's size, its name and its total volume say little about your search. A growth-stage company opening a second New York office needs the person whose recent deals look like the one it is about to do.
The proof to request from each firm: recent deals in your band
Ask for it in one email and compare the replies.
- Tenant leases closed within the last two years near your square footage.
- In the neighborhoods on your list, not across the whole city.
- With the terms: length, free rent, the improvement allowance, and any right to expand or sublet. Anonymized is fine.
- The name of the person who ran each one, and whether that person would run yours.
A reply that covers all four tells you the claim is real. A reply that pivots to awards or headline transactions tells you the firm's band is somewhere else.
What a 50-person lease puts on the table that a 15-person one does not
- Longer terms. A team of 15 often takes a furnished floor for a year or two. At 50, a direct lease of several years is a real option, and with it come free rent and improvement money.
- Rights worth negotiating. Expansion into adjacent space and the right to sublet protect a company whose headcount is still moving. Lease options explains each.
- A real buildout. Custom work typically runs 10 to 16 weeks from signing, so the schedule and the allowance become part of the deal.
- Negotiating weight. Landlords compete for a tenant of this size in a way they do not for a small suite, which shows in how fast they respond and what they offer.
A broker who has only worked the small end may not ask for any of this. From Series A to Series B covers planning an office through that stretch of growth.
What Nomad does for a team of about 50
We start with the size. At 175 square feet a person, 50 people need about 8,750 square feet, and a team that expects to keep hiring usually takes 15 to 25 percent more. Office space for a 50-person company goes through the layout behind that figure.
When landlords respond, every proposal is put on effective rent, so free rent, the allowance and escalations are priced across the whole term and two offers can be read side by side. The buildout is then managed by the same firm, which has 300+ offices delivered.
One point on coverage. Every floor we publish is in Manhattan, and that is where our knowledge of owners and buildings sits. The floors below are the ones sized for about 50 people.
Floors that fit a team of 50
Live from our listings · 6 of the 8, smallest firstA team of 50 plans on about 8,750 square feet at 175 a person. 8 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 8,750 to 15,750 square feet, asking $50 to $200 per square foot per year on the 6 with a published rent.
- Floors
- 8
- Sizes
- 9,000-13,754 sq ft
- Asking rent
- $50-$200 / sq ft
- 151 West 26th Street, Partial 10th Floor 9,000 sq ft $64/sq ft Chelsea about 51 people
- 127 West 26th Street, Entire 7th Floor 9,500 sq ft $50/sq ft Chelsea about 54 people
- 1235 Broadway, Entire 4th Floor 9,500 sq ft $62/sq ft NoMad about 54 people
- 66 Hudson Boulevard, Partial 53rd Floor 10,517 sq ft $200/sq ft Hudson Yards about 60 people
- 1700 Broadway, Entire 26th Floor 13,266 sq ft $79/sq ft Midtown about 76 people
- 836 Broadway, Entire 2nd Floor 13,754 sq ft rent on request Union Square about 79 people
The full guide
This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:
Related topics
- Where a Startup Finds a Commercial Real Estate Broker, and How to Narrow the List
- Largest Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Firms: Do You Need One in Manhattan?
- Companies for Leasing Office Space in NYC: Four Kinds and Who Each Works For
- Tenant Representation Companies for Startups: Test Them With One Brief
What if a firm's recent deals are all much larger or much smaller than ours?
Then the firm has shown you its real band. Ask whether a particular broker there works at your size and request that person's own deals. If nobody does, the firm may be excellent and still wrong for this search.
Can a brokerage firm share deal terms without breaching a client's confidence?
Yes. Remove the tenant's name and the terms can still be shown: the neighborhood, the square footage, the length of the lease, the months of free rent and the allowance. That is enough to see whether the firm has negotiated at your size, and it is a normal request.
Is a second New York office a different search from the first one?
The steps are the same and the leverage is different. A larger, better-funded tenant is offered longer terms and more concessions, and has more to lose from a clause it did not read. The firm you used at 12 people is worth testing again against your new size before you assume it fits.
How long should a growth-stage team allow from first tour to move-in?
With a custom buildout, allow four to six months. A pre-built floor cuts that to six to eight weeks when decisions come fast. The timeline guide shows where those weeks go.
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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