Flexible Office Spaces for a Growing Team: A Finished Floor With Room to Hire

How many desks a finished floor holds, counted two ways

Square footage gives a range, and the layout decides where in that range you land. At the planning figure of 175 rentable square feet per person, a 7,000 square foot floor seats 40. Seated densely, at about 140 each, the same floor seats 50. That spread is your headroom, and on a finished floor it is limited by walls that already exist.

So three numbers matter for each floor on a shortlist: the desks in place, the desks the open area could take at dense spacing, and the meeting rooms. A floor that reaches 50 desks only by giving up its call booths has less room to grow than its size suggests. A test fit on the finalists draws the count on the real floor before anyone negotiates. The office space calculator runs the same arithmetic for any headcount.

Sizing for the team you will be when the term ends

Start from the headcount you expect 12 to 18 months out, which is roughly as far as most hiring plans can see. A team of 32 with eight open roles should be touring floors for about 40, the cut the block on this page uses. Not every floor in that block is finished: each listing says whether it is furnished, prebuilt or neither. Taking 15 to 25 percent more than you need on day one usually costs less than moving a second time inside the term.

A hybrid schedule pulls the other way, though by less than people expect: a hybrid office typically comes out 10 to 20 percent smaller than one sized for everyone on every day.

Before a growing team signs for move-in ready space

• The term. Finished floors are often offered on shorter commitments, and a shorter term brings the next decision forward. Match it to how far you can forecast.
• What happens at desk 41. Ask for a right of first offer on adjacent space, and a sublet clause you could actually use.
• The furniture. Who owns it, and whether more of the same can be added later.
• Air conditioning and power for a fuller floor than the one you tour.
• Restoration, if you expect to add a room or take one out.

The pre-built entry lists the clauses that cost tenants money on finished space.

After you choose a floor: what we do next

We ask the landlord for a proposal and set it beside the alternatives on one basis: the cost over the whole term, with free rent counted. We settle the business terms in a letter of intent, growth rights included, and then work through the lease alongside your attorney.

On a finished floor a team is usually working two to four weeks after the lease is signed. Nomad also runs facilities management, so the same firm can look after the floor once you are in.