How to Find Office Space to Rent for an NYC Startup: Your Job and Ours

Here is how to find office space to rent, and how to lease an office space once you have found it, for a first office of about ten people when Nomad runs the search. You decide four things nobody can decide for you: the budget, the date, the term and who signs. Nomad does the work around those decisions: the market survey, a shortlist, the tours, landlord proposals, the letter of intent and the lease negotiation alongside your attorney. A quick team on a pre-built floor can be working there six to eight weeks after its first tour. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee.

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Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

What the founder has to decide personally

The budget: one monthly ceiling, with the costs beyond rent inside it.
The date: when the team must be working from the new office.
The term: a year at the least, two or three more commonly, with the shortest terms priced highest per square foot.
Who signs: which company is the tenant, and which founder gives the personal guarantee the landlord is likely to ask for. Good guy guarantee explains that commitment.

Everything else can be delegated.

From brief to shortlist: the founder's job and Nomad's

The brief. You: send headcount, the date and the budget. Nomad: writes them up as one requirement that every landlord conversation starts from.
The survey. You: nothing. Nomad: checks direct listings, subleases and floors that are not yet marketed.
The shortlist. Nomad: a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours, with each floor's size and asking rent. You: cross off anything that misses a must-have.

From tours to a signed lease: who does what

Tours. Nomad: books three to five floors into one afternoon. You: bring whoever will sign, and rank the floors that evening.
Proposals. Nomad: asks the landlords of the finalists to price a deal and puts the answers on one basis. You: name a first choice and a second.
The letter of intent. Nomad: negotiates rent, free rent, the allowance and the security. You: approve the numbers.
The lease. Your attorney: reviews the landlord's draft. Nomad: checks the draft against the letter of intent. You: sign, and post the security.

Move-in, and how long a first office takes

On a pre-built or furnished floor the keys usually arrive two to four weeks after you sign, which is how a quick founder gets from first tour to desks in six to eight. Where the space has to be built to order, allow four to six months in all. Your job in this stretch is to order the internet circuit the day the lease is signed and to arrange insurance. Nomad's brokerage team oversees the move and coordinates the vendors. How long it takes to get an office has the schedule phase by phase.

The block below holds floors that suit about 10 people.

What the service costs a startup

In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee; the commission terms of your own deal confirm it. In the first conversation about the brief, settle two things with us or with any broker: what you would be asked to sign, and whether any fee could fall to the startup. As for whose side we are on: on your search, we work for you. Nomad also offers agency leasing and owner representation. If a building we lease for its owner makes your list, we tell you, and both sides must consent before we act for both. Our brokerage service is described in full on its own page.

Floors that fit a team of 10

Live from our listings · smallest first

A team of 10 plans on about 1,750 square feet at 175 a person. 5 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 1,750 to 3,150 square feet, asking $44 to $92 per square foot per year.

Floors: 5
Sizes: 2,500-2,978 sq ft
Asking rent: $44-$92 / 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:

Which parts of the search need the founder in the room?

Four: the first conversation about the brief, the tour afternoon, the choice between landlord proposals and the signature. The rest runs by email. A founder who answers within a day helps keep the search toward the short end of each range.

What if we cannot choose between two floors after the tour?

Go back to both at a different time of day, with a rough layout in hand, and bring anyone who missed the first visit. Then ask for proposals on both. Keeping a second floor alive through the proposal stage is also the stronger negotiating position, so indecision here costs little.

Does Nomad choose the office for the startup?

No. We advise, compare and negotiate, and the decision stays with you. If a floor on the shortlist is wrong for the brief we will say so, and if our own listings hold nothing suitable we will say that too and look wider.

Should a team of ten rent an office or stay in coworking?

Run both numbers. Under about 15 people, desks at $800 to $1,400 each per month usually cost less in total. Ten people who need privacy, host clients or expect to be twenty within a year often choose a floor anyway. The block below shows what an office of that size asks.

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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