Flexible Workspace for Rent: A Private Office on 12, 24 or 36 Months

What each term buys: 12, 24 and 36 months side by side

• 12 months is the shortest commitment a landlord will usually accept on a private floor. It usually carries the highest rent per square foot of the three and the fewest floors to choose from. It fits a team with a decision due inside the year: a funding round, a New York trial, a permanent office still under construction.
• 24 months is the middle. More landlords offer it, the rate is usually lower than on a one-year deal, and there is room to negotiate an option to renew.
• 36 months gives the widest choice and usually the lowest rate of the three, and some landlords will agree to light changes to the layout. In exchange you have to forecast headcount three years out.

On short deals, expect to pay roughly 10 to 20 percent above the equivalent long-term rent, and expect little or no landlord money toward construction. That is why short terms and furnished floors go together.

What a short-term private office rental includes

On a furnished floor the desks, chairs, meeting rooms, pantry and cabling are in place when you arrive. A pre-built floor has its rooms, pantry and lighting finished and may still need furniture. Either way the whole floor is yours: your door, your badge list, your name at the entrance. A Flex by Nomad floor adds the running of it. Connectivity, cleaning, on-call support and a restocked pantry are handled by Nomad's own operations team.

Two things sit outside the rent on any lease, short or long: electricity, which adds something like $2 to $4 a square foot each year, and a security deposit. Move-in normally follows two to four weeks after the lease is signed. Flex by Nomad describes the serviced floor in full.

Who should rent flexible space, and who should sign a traditional lease

Rent flexible space if your plan has a real decision point inside three years. That covers a company that has outgrown coworking and does not want to run a buildout, a firm opening in New York from another city, and a team that needs somewhere to work while its permanent office is built.

Sign a traditional lease if headcount is steady, you want the space designed around you, and you can commit for five years or more. The long term is what earns free rent and the largest landlord contribution to the buildout. The short-term HQ playbook covers the ground between the two.

Four clauses that keep a short lease from costing extra

• A renewal option, with the way the new rent is set agreed at signing.
• Who owns the furniture when the term ends.
• Restoration: the aim is to take the floor as it is and hand it back as it is.
• Holdover: a short term ends soon by design, and a few extra weeks at a penalty rate adds up.

Your attorney should review each of these in the draft. Put the decision date in the calendar two quarters before the lease expires.