Largest Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Firms: Do You Need One in Manhattan?

You need one of the largest commercial real estate brokerage firms when the requirement itself is national: offices in several cities negotiated as one package, or a single block past roughly 100,000 square feet, where the owners on the list are the city's biggest. For one New York floor, even a large one, the outcome turns on knowledge of Manhattan submarkets, and that belongs to whoever works them every day. A company arriving from another city, often with a trusted broker at home, should run that rule before it stretches the home relationship across to New York.

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Send me floors for 100

Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

What the largest national firms are built to do

Scale buys specific things: research departments, offices in many cities, and standing relationships with the largest landlords. Those are the right tools for a portfolio that spans markets or for a block so big that only a few owners can supply it.

Several cities negotiated together, on one timetable, for one board.
A requirement past roughly 100,000 square feet.
A portfolio strategy, where leases in different markets are traded off against each other.

Outside those cases, scale is not what you are buying. You are buying one broker's knowledge of a few neighborhoods.

Why a home-city broker's knowledge does not travel to Manhattan

What makes a broker useful is local and perishable. Which landlords will move on free rent this quarter. Which floors have been sitting long enough for the owner to bend. Which buildings deliver a prebuilt floor on the date they promise. None of that carries over from another city, however good the broker is there.

A home-city broker will often offer a referral to a New York colleague. That can work. Ask who the colleague is, what they have leased lately at your size, and whether your account would be theirs or a favor to another office.

The test for a company leasing in several cities at once

If you are leasing in New York and two other markets in the same year, ask each national firm a single question: who is the one accountable person comparing the options across cities on the same basis? That basis is effective rent, term and timing, put side by side. When each city's office runs its own search and reports separately, you have hired several local brokers who share a logo.

What reads differently when a company leases in New York for the first time

Rent is quoted per rentable square foot per year. Rentable includes a share of the building's common areas, and usable space runs 15 to 25 percent below it.
Security is often posted as a letter of credit, a bank instrument, in place of a cash deposit.
Rent rises on a fixed schedule, with escalations of roughly 2.5 to 3 percent a year.

The arrival guides cover the rest: opening a New York office from San Francisco and opening one from London.

Nomad's scope: New York only, with every listed floor in Manhattan

Nomad works in New York only, and every floor it lists is in Manhattan. The firm has 300+ offices delivered and 2M+ square feet leased, all of it here. If your requirement is several cities negotiated as one, a national firm is the better fit, and we will tell you so.

Cost rarely decides between the two. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, so a tenant usually pays the same whichever size of firm it hires. The floors below are sized for about 100 people, the large end of what we list. On your search, we work for you. Nomad also offers agency leasing and owner representation.

Floors that fit a team of 100

Live from our listings · smallest first

A team of 100 plans on about 17,500 square feet at 175 a person. 4 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 17,500 to 31,500 square feet, asking $56 to $130 per square foot per year.

Floors: 4
Sizes: 17,610-27,344 sq ft
Asking rent: $56-$130 / 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:

Our broker at home wants to refer us to a New York partner. Should we accept?

Meet the partner before you decide. A referral is a name, and the person behind it still has to show recent tenant leases at your size in the neighborhoods you are weighing. Compare them with one New York firm you found yourself, using the same brief for both.

Does an office for 100 people count as a large requirement in Manhattan?

Not in the sense that calls for national scale. At 175 square feet a person it is about 17,500 square feet, which is a full floor in many buildings. That is well inside the range where submarket knowledge decides the deal. Office space for 100 people shows what that size looks like.

Will one of the largest firms cost a tenant more than a local one?

Usually not. The commission normally comes from the landlord whichever firm represents you, so firm size does not show up in your costs. It shows up in who is assigned to your search and how much of their week you get.

Can a company run a Manhattan search without flying anyone in?

Most of it. The brief, the shortlist and the first cut can be done remotely, and several of our listings have 3D walkthroughs. Plan one visit for the final tours, which usually cover three to five floors in an afternoon.

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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