Office Space for Lease in NYC: How Much to Lease and How the Process Runs

Before looking at office spaces for lease in NYC, settle how much to lease. The working figure is 175 rentable square feet per person: about 140 in a dense open plan, about 225 where many people have private offices, and 10 to 20 percent under the full-time figure for most hybrid teams. The process then runs in a set order: brief, shortlist, tours, proposals, letter of intent, lease, and buildout or move-in. For a company whose people arrive on the LIRR and NJ Transit we use Penn Plaza as the example, and the floors below are the Penn Plaza ones we list today.

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Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

How many square feet to lease, by how the team works

Full-time, mixed layout: 175 square feet per person. Thirty people need about 5,250.
Dense open plan with few rooms: about 140 each, or 4,200 for the same thirty.
Many private offices: about 225 each, or 6,750.
Hybrid: most teams land 10 to 20 percent below the full-time figure, so roughly 4,200 to 4,700.

All of these are rentable square feet. Usable space, the part that takes desks, runs 15 to 25 percent below that, which is why the last floors standing deserve a test fit. The office space calculator does this for whatever headcount you enter.

Once the square footage is settled: the leasing process in brief

The brief comes first: headcount, date, budget, neighborhoods. A shortlist follows, then an afternoon of tours. For the two or three floors you like, the landlords are asked for proposals and a test fit is drawn. The winning proposal is written into a letter of intent, the attorneys turn that into a lease, and the floor is either built out or occupied as it stands. Office space for rent in NYC walks through every step.

The whole run, first tour to working desks, is about six to eight weeks for a pre-built floor. With construction to your own plan it is four to six months.

Why a commuter-rail team should lease beside the station

The commute decides more than the building does. A team that rides the LIRR and NJ Transit arrives at Penn Station, and every block between the platform and the office is added to both ends of each day. Penn Plaza is the submarket around the station and Moynihan Train Hall. Beneath it run the 1/2/3 and the A/C/E, for colleagues traveling within the city.

Every floor we publish is in Manhattan. We list nothing west of the Hudson or out on Long Island; the point of this submarket is that people who live there reach it on one train. The Penn Plaza guide describes the blocks and the buildings.

What Nomad does for a commuter-rail team, from brief to keys

Shortlist: a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours of your brief.
Tours: three to five floors in one afternoon, arranged by us and walked with you.
Negotiation: proposals first, the letter of intent second, and finally the lease, with your attorney beside us.
Buildout support: where the floor needs work, our construction management team takes on design, filings and the contractor.

We work for you on your search, and in most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee.

The Penn Plaza floors on this page

The block below shows the Penn Plaza floors we list today, with the size and asking rent of each. Hold them against your own number from the first section. If the team is larger or smaller than these floors hold, the same sizing applies in any submarket, and every available floor can be searched by size.

Penn Plaza office space available now

Live from our listings · cheapest first

3 offices are available in Penn Plaza right now, from 5,070 to 6,100 square feet, asking $50 to $135 per square foot per year. The Penn Plaza median is $52.

Floors: 3
Sizes: 5,070-6,100 sq ft
Asking rent: $50-$135 / sq ft
Median: $52 / sq ft

Everything available in Penn Plaza, with photos and rents →

The full guide

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

Rentable or usable: which number do we set against our headcount?

Rentable. The 175 figure is rentable square feet for each person and already allows for meeting rooms and shared areas. Usable space runs 15 to 25 percent lower, and the test fit is where you see what that leaves for desks.

Should we lease extra space for people we have not hired yet?

If the hiring plan is firm, yes: a team that expects to hire usually leases 15 to 25 percent above what today's headcount needs. If it is not, take the smaller floor and ask for an expansion right in the lease. Lease options explains how those work.

Is Penn Plaza only for companies with commuters from the suburbs?

No. It is the example here because the LIRR and NJ Transit end there. A team that lives along the subway will find the 1/2/3 and the A/C/E under the same blocks, and may find another submarket closer to where its people start. The commute map answers that, not the label.

What is a test fit, and when do we ask for one?

It is a sketch plan of one particular floor with your desks and rooms drawn in. Ask for one on the finalists, after the tours and before the letter of intent. It is the check on whether the square footage really holds the people.

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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