How to Find Office Space in Manhattan When the Team Is Growing
Finding office space in Manhattan comes down to eight steps: write a brief, size the space, survey the market, tour a shortlist, compare landlord proposals, settle the terms in a letter of intent, negotiate the lease, and then either build or move straight in. A team that decides quickly can be at its desks six to eight weeks after the first tour if the floor is pre-built, and in four to six months if the space needs a custom buildout. For a team that is still hiring, the two decisions that matter most are how much room to take and how long to commit for.
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Send me a shortlist of floorsUpdated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group
Start with a brief, not a listing site
Listings are where a search starts, and they are not the whole market. Subleases and floors a landlord has not marketed yet tend to reach brokers before they reach any website. A one-page brief lets a broker search all of it at once.
- Headcount today, and where the plan puts it in 12 to 18 months.
- The date you need to be working from the new office.
- A monthly budget.
- The neighborhoods you would consider. Where the team lives usually decides more than taste.
- Must-haves, such as light, power or a number of meeting rooms.
Size for the team you will be
Plan on about 175 rentable square feet per person. A team that expects to hire usually takes 15 to 25 percent more than today's headcount needs.
The alternative to paying for empty desks is flexibility written into the deal: a shorter term, a right to expand, or a sublet clause that lets you hand the space on if you outgrow it. Lease options explains the expansion and renewal rights worth asking for.
Compare what a floor costs, not what it asks
Landlords quote asking rent by the rentable square foot, per year. For a monthly figure, multiply the rate by the square feet and divide by twelve. Two floors with similar asking rents can sit far apart once free rent and the improvement allowance are counted, which is why proposals belong on effective rent over the whole term.
Then budget for what sits on top: electricity, which runs about $2 to $4 a square foot each year; escalations of around 2.5 to 3 percent annually; the security deposit, or a letter of credit in its place; furniture and cabling; and whatever the buildout costs beyond the allowance. What office space really costs prices each one.
Choose the route: direct, sublease or furnished
- Direct from the landlord: improvement money, free rent and renewal options, in exchange for a longer term.
- A sublease: another company's space until its lease ends, usually cheaper and faster, and taken largely as it stands.
- A furnished or pre-built floor: ready two to four weeks after signing, often on a shorter term.
Several of Nomad's clients started on a flexible arrangement and signed a conventional lease later, once headcount settled.
Floors asking $50 to $75 per square foot
Live from our listings · 6 of the 20, cheapest first20 of the 46 floors with a published rent ask $50 to $75 per square foot per year, from 2,500 to 27,344 square feet.
- Floors
- 20
- Sizes
- 2,500-27,344 sq ft
- Asking rent
- $50-$72 / sq ft
- 276 Fifth Avenue, 9th Floor 5,500 sq ft $52/sq ft Flatiron about 31 people
- 151 West 26th Street, 12th Floor Penthouse 17,610 sq ft $56/sq ft Chelsea about 101 people
- 45 Broadway, Partial 12th Floor 2,624 sq ft $60/sq ft FiDi about 15 people
- 1239 Broadway, Entire 12th Floor 12,500 sq ft $62/sq ft NoMad about 71 people
- 151 West 26th Street, Partial 10th Floor 9,000 sq ft $64/sq ft Chelsea about 51 people
- 60 East 42nd Street, Partial 13th Floor 5,772 sq ft $72/sq ft Grand Central about 33 people
The full guide
This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:
Related topics
- Month-to-Month Offices in NYC: What a Startup Can Actually Rent
- Office Space per Employee: The Number to Plan On
- Renting Office Space in Chelsea: Costs, Floors and Fit
- Tenant Representation in NYC: What the Service Covers
From first tour to move-in, how many weeks should we expect?
Six to eight on a pre-built floor, for a team that decides quickly. Four to six months when the space needs a custom buildout, which alone typically takes 10 to 16 weeks after signing. How long it takes to get an office breaks the schedule into phases.
How many floors should we tour?
Three to five, which fits in one afternoon. Fewer gives you nothing to compare, and more usually means the brief was not specific enough. Ask for a test fit on the finalists before you ask for proposals. How to tour office space has the checklist.
Can we find office space without a broker?
You can. The listing agent you would call works for the owner, shows only that owner's buildings, and negotiates holding comparable deals you have not seen. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, so having your own usually costs nothing out of pocket. What a tenant broker does covers the role.
Is office space for rent different from office space for lease?
Not in a way that changes the search. Offices in New York are taken on leases that run for years and come with escalations, free rent and an improvement allowance. The month-to-month kind of renting is a coworking product, and it costs more per desk.
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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