Month-to-Month Office Space Rentals: This Week, This Month and Next Quarter in NYC

This week: desks and rooms rented by the month

Coworking is the kind of office in Manhattan you can be working in within days. You sign a membership, at a Manhattan rate of about $800 to $1,400 a desk each month, and the furniture and internet are already there. It suits a team that cannot see a quarter ahead, a few people testing New York, or a company that needs somewhere to sit while its own floor is prepared.

A private office by the month exists here too, as a lockable room on the operator's floor. On a floor of your own, a monthly term is rare. Before you sign, read four things in the agreement: the notice to leave, automatic renewal, how the price can rise, and whether your room can be moved.

This month: a furnished private floor

A furnished floor has desks, meeting rooms and cabling in place, so nothing has to be built or delivered. Once the lease is signed, move-in follows in two to four weeks. The lease is the slower part: it runs for about 12 months at the short end, and it has to be negotiated and reviewed by your attorney first. The furnished floors page shows which listings are ready to occupy.

Next quarter: a pre-built floor, counted from the first tour

A pre-built floor is space the landlord has already finished to a move-in standard. For a team that decides quickly, the path from first tour to working desks takes six to eight weeks: a shortlist, an afternoon of tours, proposals, a letter of intent, the lease, and then move-in. Space that needs a custom buildout runs on a different calendar, four to six months. Our timeline guide breaks down each stage.

Where Nomad comes into this timeline, and what it handles

Nomad does not operate coworking, so the first row of this timeline is not ours to sell. From the second row on, the work is ours: the search and the negotiation, construction management where a floor needs work, and facilities management once the team is in. Flex by Nomad is the furnished, serviced private floor, where no buildout is needed and the running of the office is included. A team can do both at once: desks by the month now, while a floor of its own is being negotiated.

The Chelsea floors shown on this page

The block below lists the floors on our book in Chelsea, the west side district between the High Line and Midtown South. Its office stock is mostly loft floors with high ceilings, and the A/C/E, the 1 and the F/M stop at 14th and 23rd Streets. Chelsea is shown here as a single neighborhood's floors, not as a recommendation. Some of these floors are furnished or pre-built and others need work, so ask which ones fit your date. The Chelsea guide describes the district.