A Commercial Lease Negotiator for NYC Offices: Compare First, Then Trade
A commercial lease negotiator in NYC does two jobs, one after the other. First comes the comparison: two or three landlord proposals, each written in its own format, converted to a single effective rent per square foot across the term. Then comes the trade: using the gap between those numbers to improve the floor you prefer. Nomad does this for growing teams that already hold proposals, and for teams that want the whole search run for them. On your search, we work for you, and in most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee. Send the proposals exactly as they arrived.
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.
Compare my proposalsUpdated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group
Putting competing proposals on one effective-rent basis
Landlords do not answer a request for proposal in the same shape. One offers a lower asking rent and little else. Another holds its rent and adds free months and construction money. Converted to effective rent, they can be ranked.
For each proposal we work through five lines.
- Asking rent, multiplied by the rentable square feet and the years of term.
- Free months, subtracted at their rent value.
- The improvement allowance, subtracted where you would spend it on the buildout anyway.
- Escalations, added year by year and compounding. How escalations compound.
- Electricity, added by the building's method: a submeter or a fixed charge, typically $2 to $4 per square foot per year.
Divide the total by the square feet and the years, and each floor has one number. As an illustration, suppose one floor asks $80 with five free months and a $40 allowance on a five-year term, and another asks $76 with one free month and a $10 allowance: before escalations the first comes to about $65 a square foot a year and the second to about $73. The higher ask is the cheaper deal.
Why two real alternatives stay alive until the lease is signed
The comparison has force only if you could sign either floor. A landlord who senses the other proposal is decoration stops conceding. So the second floor has to be one you have toured, test fitted and would take.
Keep it going past the letter of intent. Until the lease is signed its business terms generally commit neither side, so a deal can still change in drafting, and your attorney should confirm which paragraphs do bind. A tenant with a warm second option is better placed to hold a landlord to what was agreed.
How early a growing team should start before its lease expires
Nine to twelve months before the expiry date. That leaves time to tour, collect proposals on more than one floor, negotiate with no deadline pressing on you, and build or move in. A team that starts at six weeks is negotiating against its own holdover clause, which commonly bills an overstay at 150 to 200 percent of the last rent.
A renewal needs at least as long. An owner prices a renewal against the tenant's alternatives, and those shrink as the date approaches. Renew or relocate covers that decision.
Negotiating direct with a landlord, or through a broker on your side
You can negotiate directly. The person across the table is the building's leasing agent, who is hired by the owner, knows what the building has conceded before, and negotiates leases every week. You see one owner's floors and argue with no comparable deals in hand.
Going direct often saves little, because landlords typically budget for commissions when they price a deal.
We also offer agency leasing and owner representation, so ask us whether any building in your proposals is one we lease for its owner. New York permits one firm on both sides of a deal, called dual agency, only with the informed consent of landlord and tenant. How to choose a tenant rep broker lists the questions to put to any firm.
Floors asking $75 to $100 per square foot
Live from our listings · 6 of the 11, cheapest first11 of the 46 floors with a published rent ask $75 to $100 per square foot per year, from 2,940 to 13,266 square feet.
- Floors
- 11
- Sizes
- 2,940-13,266 sq ft
- Asking rent
- $78-$98 / sq ft
- 17 State Street, Partial 26th Floor 6,606 sq ft $79/sq ft FiDi about 38 people
- 540 Broadway, Entire 2nd Floor 6,350 sq ft $85/sq ft SoHo about 36 people
- Empire State Building, Partial 43rd Floor 5,621 sq ft $90/sq ft NoMad about 32 people
- 110 Greene Street, Partial 5th Floor 3,750 sq ft $95/sq ft SoHo about 21 people
- 1450 Broadway, Entire 40th Floor 4,109 sq ft $95/sq ft Bryant Park about 23 people
- 50 Greene Street, 3rd Floor 7,300 sq ft $98/sq ft SoHo about 70 people
The full guide
This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:
Related topics
- Broker or Real Estate Counsel: Who Negotiates Which Part of a Commercial Lease
- How to Negotiate a Commercial Lease: The Terms That Move, and the Order to Push Them
- Lease Negotiation Services for Startups: What We Do Once a Space Is in Play
- Commercial Lease Checklist: What to Confirm in the Last Draft Before You Sign
Does Nomad only negotiate, or does it also run the search?
Both. A team already holding proposals can bring us in for the comparison and the negotiation alone. A team starting from nothing gets the full sequence: brief, shortlist, tours, proposals, letter of intent and lease. What the brokerage service covers.
What should we send to have our proposals compared?
Each proposal as you received it, the rentable square footage of each floor, your headcount plan and the date your current lease ends. With those we can state every offer as effective rent and show which terms explain the gap.
Is the lowest effective rent always the floor to choose?
No. Effective rent ranks cost. It does not rank the sublet clause, the restoration duty, the guarantee or how well the floor fits the team. We show the cost number first and the terms that could outweigh it second, and the choice stays with you.
Are the asking rents in the block below what a tenant ends up paying?
No. They are where a landlord opens. The block shows floors in one asking band so you can see how sizes and rents line up. A proposal on any of them would then be converted to effective rent, which usually comes out under the ask once free months and the allowance are counted.
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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