Flexible Lease Terms on Pre-Built Office Spaces: What Is Fixed and What Still Moves
On a pre-built office the landlord has fixed two things before you arrive: the space, delivered as built, and its opening package of rent and term. The rest is open. Terms on pre-built floors run shorter than on a custom deal, often two or three years, because there is no new construction to pay back. At proposal stage a tenant can still move free rent, the length of the commitment, furniture, small layout changes, the deposit and what must be restored at the end. The face rent gives least. When a proposal arrives we mark it line by line as fixed or movable, then negotiate the second list.
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Review my pre-built proposalUpdated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group
Fixed on arrival: the suite and the landlord's opening package
A landlord running a pre-built program often publishes a standard offer: one rent, one term, and the suite exactly as it stands. The construction is finished, so there is no work letter to argue over and usually little or no improvement allowance.
Treat that package as a starting position. It saves time because the buildout questions are closed, and it was written by the other side of the table.
Still movable when the proposal is on the table
- Term. Twelve months is achievable on some floors. Two and three years are more usual and tend to price better.
- Free rent, taken at the front of the term.
- Rent. It has less give than tenants expect, since the landlord's construction cost is inside it.
- Furniture: whether it is included, who owns it at expiry and who takes it away.
- Minor layout changes: paint, new carpet, a door added or a room opened up, with consent.
- Restoration: what you must put back when you leave. The position to ask for is take as-is, return as-is.
- The deposit, and how it steps down after a record of on-time payment.
- A renewal option and a right to expand. These matter more on a short term, because the next negotiation arrives sooner.
What moves in a lease negotiation ranks these by the money involved.
Comparing several pre-built proposals on one page
Offers on finished floors arrive in different shapes, so we convert each to one basis before you decide: net effective rent over the term, with free months counted. Three more figures belong beside it: the monthly cost with electricity added, the first-year cash including the deposit, and the date you can actually start work.
A furnished floor at a higher rent can beat an empty one. Say one floor asks $60 with furniture and another asks $55 without: the gap closes quickly once 20 desks at $2,000 to $4,000 each are added to the second.
The block on this page shows the middle price band of our book, pre-built floors and others together, which makes a useful yardstick. The pre-built entry explains why a finished suite often asks more than unbuilt space in the same building.
After you choose: letter of intent, lease, keys
We put the agreed terms into a letter of intent, where moving a number costs a sentence instead of weeks. The landlord's attorney drafts the lease and yours reviews it, while we hold the draft to what the letter said. Before signing we walk the suite with a punch list. Move-in usually follows two to four weeks later.
Floors asking $50 to $75 per square foot
Live from our listings · 6 of the 20, cheapest first20 of the 46 floors with a published rent ask $50 to $75 per square foot per year, from 2,500 to 27,344 square feet.
- Floors
- 20
- Sizes
- 2,500-27,344 sq ft
- Asking rent
- $50-$72 / sq ft
- 276 Fifth Avenue, 9th Floor 5,500 sq ft $52/sq ft Flatiron about 31 people
- 22 West 27th Street, Entire 7th Floor 6,000 sq ft $57/sq ft NoMad about 34 people
- 45 Broadway, Partial 12th Floor 2,624 sq ft $60/sq ft FiDi about 15 people
- 1239 Broadway, Entire 12th Floor 12,500 sq ft $62/sq ft NoMad about 71 people
- 1450 Broadway, Entire 4th Floor 17,296 sq ft $65/sq ft Bryant Park about 99 people
- 60 East 42nd Street, Partial 13th Floor 5,772 sq ft $72/sq ft Grand Central about 33 people
The full guide
This page is the short answer. The long one, with the numbers worked through, is here:
Related topics
- Fully Furnished Private Office Suites: What Comes With the Suite, and What Does Not
- Startup Office Space for Lease: The First-Lease Budget, Rent and Everything Else
- Move-In Ready Office Space for Startups: Why It Usually Fits, and When It Does Not
- Fully Fitted Office Space: What Fitted, Furnished and Turnkey Each Promise
What lease lengths do landlords offer on pre-built floors?
Shorter ones than the five to ten years that is standard on a conventional Manhattan lease. Two or three years are common on pre-built floors, and twelve months is achievable on some. Some landlords offer a short term to fill a floor between larger tenants. Ask what each length does to the rent, because a longer commitment usually prices better.
Does a finished office carry a higher rent than raw space?
Per square foot, often, inside the same building: the construction has been amortized into the rent. In total over a short term, usually not, because you skip a buildout and often the furniture. The premium gets harder to defend the longer you stay, because at some point your own buildout would have been the cheaper route.
Can we negotiate if the landlord says its pre-built terms are standard?
Yes. Standard describes where the landlord starts. Free rent, term, deposit, furniture ownership, options and condition items are regularly changed on pre-built deals. A landlord is more willing when you hold a second proposal on a comparable floor.
Who reviews the lease on a pre-built office?
Your attorney reviews the document, and we carry the business terms. A pre-built lease is lighter on construction language and no lighter on guarantees, default, restoration or assignment. The furnished and prebuilt floors page lists the checks to run before signing.
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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