Find Commercial Office Space: What to Have Ready Before the Search Starts

To find commercial office space without wasting tours, prepare one page before you contact anyone: today's headcount and the number expected in 12 to 18 months, the date you need to move in, a monthly budget, the neighborhoods you would accept, the term you can commit to and your must-haves. Each item removes floors from the market, which is the point. Get the people who will approve the lease to agree the page first. Then send it to Nomad. A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours, and a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours.

Rather have a broker answer it for your team?Tell us team size and timing. A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours.

Send my brief to a broker

Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

The six lines of a brief, and why a broker asks for each

Headcount now and in 12 to 18 months. It sets the square footage, and the second number decides whether you take extra room or ask for an expansion right.
Move-in date. It decides whether a custom buildout is possible or only furnished and pre-built floors will do.
Monthly budget. It sets the rent range worth touring.
Neighborhoods. Two or three, picked from where people live.
Term. One year, three years or longer changes which landlords will talk and what they will give.
Must-haves. Keep the list to the few things you would walk away over, such as daylight, a set number of meeting rooms or a terrace.

The headcount line: turning people into square feet

Multiply by 175 square feet per person. For a team of 40 that is 7,000 square feet. If you expect to hire, add 15 to 25 percent, which gives 8,050 to 8,750. If most of the team is hybrid, take 10 to 20 percent off instead, which gives 5,600 to 6,300.

Put the range on the brief, not a single figure. The office space calculator does the sum and shows floors that fit. The floors below are sized for about 40 people.

The budget line: turning a monthly figure into a rent per square foot

Landlords quote by the square foot and by the year, so convert before you look. Multiply the monthly budget by twelve and divide by the square feet. Say the budget is $42,000 a month for 7,000 square feet: that is $504,000 a year, or $72 a square foot.

Leave room under that number for electricity and escalations, and give the broker a range, such as 60 to 72 dollars. A range finds more floors than a ceiling does.

Who inside the company should agree the brief before tours

An operations or people lead usually runs the search, and three other people can stop it late.

Whoever signs the lease, often the chief executive.
Whoever owns the budget, since the deposit and the buildout sit beside the rent.
Whoever owns the hiring plan, since headcount drives the size.

Have all three read the page and say yes before the first tour. A brief that changes after tours restarts the comparison.

After you send the brief to Nomad

A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours to check the details. A first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours: real floors, each shown with its size and asking rent. On your search, we work for you, and in most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee. How the shortlist works describes what arrives.

Floors that fit a team of 40

Live from our listings · 6 of the 13, smallest first

A team of 40 plans on about 7,000 square feet at 175 a person. 13 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 7,000 to 12,600 square feet, asking $43 to $200 per square foot per year on the 11 with a published rent.

Floors: 13
Sizes: 7,047-12,500 sq ft
Asking rent: $43-$200 / sq ft

Every available floor, filterable by size →

The full guide

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

We do not know our headcount in 18 months. What do we write?

Write the range the hiring plan supports and say how confident you are. An uncertain number is still useful: it points toward a shorter term, a furnished floor or an expansion right instead of extra square feet you may never fill.

Is a monthly budget enough, or do you need a rent per square foot?

The monthly figure is enough. We convert it. If you have done the conversion yourself, include both, because it shows whether your budget counts electricity and other charges or base rent alone.

Should the brief name specific buildings?

It can, but neighborhoods are more useful. Naming a building narrows the search to one landlord, and subleases or unmarketed floors nearby would be missed. List the districts, and add any building you already like as a note.

How long should preparing the brief take?

An afternoon, once the three approvers are in the room. Most delay comes from discovering mid-search that the budget or the date was never agreed. How long it takes to get an office shows where time goes after that.

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

Or call 646-688-3158