Commercial Real Estate Brokerage and Leasing for a Creative Startup's First Lease

Leasing is a commitment a membership is not. A lease gives a company its own floor for a fixed term of years, at a rent that steps up annually, with the landlord contributing to the buildout in exchange for that term. A coworking membership is usually a license: one bundled bill, short notice to leave, and no rights in the space. Commercial real estate brokerage and leasing, for a creative, media or design startup signing its first lease, is the work of finding a floor worth that commitment. Such teams usually want a loft: tall ceilings, big windows and a whole floor to themselves. In Manhattan that often means Chelsea.

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.

Show me Chelsea loft floors

Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

What a lease commits a creative startup to, and what it gets back

A term measured in years. In Chelsea five years is the usual ask and three can be had on smaller floors.
Rent that rises on a schedule, roughly 2.5 to 3 percent a year, plus electricity and the other costs a membership bundles in.
Security: a deposit or a letter of credit, and usually a good guy guarantee.
In return: your own door with your own name on it, a landlord who contributes to the buildout or delivers the space built, free rent at the start of the term, and the right to stay at a known rent.

Lease versus rent sets the two side by side. Have an attorney read the lease before you sign it.

What a creative or media team should ask of a floor

Light: windows on more than one side, and what they look out on.
Height: ceilings tall enough for the work, whether that is a shoot, a model or a wall of screens.
A whole floor: an elevator that opens into your own space, so clients and collaborators arrive in your studio and not in a shared corridor.
Power and air: electrical capacity for equipment heavier than laptops, and what air conditioning costs after hours, in writing.
Freight: how large things get upstairs, and when the freight elevator can be booked.

Why Chelsea: the loft rows of the mid-20s

Chelsea's working blocks for an office tenant are the side streets of the mid-20s, west of Sixth Avenue. The buildings went up for the garment trade a century ago: six to twelve stories, ceilings of 11 to 13 feet, oversized windows, few columns, and floors that one company can hold alone. Galleries, agencies and studios share those streets, so the address needs no explaining to a client or a hire.

Transit runs along the west side. The A/C/E follows Eighth Avenue, the 1 follows Seventh and the F/M follows Sixth, each with stations at 14th and 23rd Streets, and the L from Brooklyn ends at Eighth Avenue and 14th. From the loft rows, Penn Station is roughly a ten-minute walk. The block on this page shows the Chelsea floors we list and what each asks, and the Chelsea guide covers the neighborhood.

Comparing two lofts that look alike in photographs

Prewar buildings differ one from the next, even on the same block. Compare these before the rent.

What the landlord delivers: raw, built, or built and furnished.
Usable area. Rent is charged on rentable square feet, and the share lost to the core differs by building.
The elevators: how many, how fast, and whether one serves freight.

Then compare cost over the whole term and not the asking figure.

After signing: from keys to a working studio

If the floor is furnished or pre-built, a team can usually be working there two to four weeks after signing. If it needs building, Nomad's construction management team handles the design, the permits and the contractor, typically over 10 to 16 weeks, and facilities management takes over cleaning, repairs and vendors once you are in.

Nomad Property Group is a licensed New York real estate broker. On your search, we work for you, and in most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee; the firm also offers agency leasing and owner representation, which the brokerage page explains.

Chelsea office space available now

Live from our listings · 6 of the 9, cheapest first

9 offices are available in Chelsea right now, from 2,937 to 18,668 square feet, asking $44 to $64 per square foot per year. The Chelsea median is $56.

Floors: 9
Sizes: 2,937-18,668 sq ft
Asking rent: $44-$64 / sq ft
Median: $56 / sq ft

Everything available in Chelsea, with photos and rents →

The full guide

This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:

Is a first lease too big a step for a ten-person studio?

Not if the work needs its own space. Below about 15 people coworking usually costs less in total, so the case for leasing at that size rests on what a shared floor cannot give you: privacy for client work, room for equipment, a place that looks like the studio.

Can we alter a loft floor to suit production or studio work?

Usually, with the landlord's consent, and the lease sets out who pays and what must be removed at the end. Raise it before the letter of intent. Your attorney should confirm the alteration and restoration clauses.

Does Chelsea suit a team that lives mostly in Brooklyn?

It depends on the line. The L runs to Eighth Avenue and the A/C comes up the west side, so parts of Brooklyn have a direct ride. Neighborhoods on the east-side expresses need a transfer. Map where the team lives before you commit to the neighborhood.

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

Or call 646-688-3158