What to Check on a Commercial Property Tour in NYC: A Tech Team's Checklist

On a commercial property tour, check what photographs cannot show. For a tech team the list is: which internet providers serve the building and whether fiber reaches the floor; how much power the floor has and how it is billed; when the air conditioning shuts off and what it costs after hours; the elevators and the freight rules; daylight at the hours you work; and noise. Prepare one page per floor before you go, put identical questions to the landlord's agent at every stop, and tour floors in one price band so the answers compare. A Nomad broker walks each floor with you.

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Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

The tech team's on-site checklist

Internet. Get the names of the providers already in the building, ask whether fiber is on the floor or only in the basement, and whether a second provider can be brought in. One provider means no fallback and no price competition.
Power. Ask how electricity is metered and billed, what the panel can carry, and whether capacity can be added. If any hardware will run on site, get the building engineer's answer in writing.
Air conditioning. Ask when it turns off, the hourly rate for overtime air, and whether a server closet can have cooling of its own.
Freight and elevators. Count the cars, time a ride, and ask how the freight elevator is booked. It governs the move and any construction.
Light. Judge it from the worst desk, not from the window seats.
Noise. Shut the door, stand still for a minute, then take a call from the loudest spot.

What an AI startup should look for is the specialist version of this list.

The one page to prepare for each floor

Before the tour, give every floor one sheet with identical fields, so no space is judged on a different basis from the next.

Where it is: building, floor, nearest subway.
How big: rentable square feet, and the desk count that gives at 175 square feet a person.
What it costs: the asking rent turned into a monthly figure.
Its state: raw, prebuilt or furnished, and when you could move in.

Settle the deal-breakers as a team beforehand: the 18-month headcount, the most you can pay each month, the train line, the date. A floor that fails one deserves a quick look and no more.

Questions for the landlord's agent while you are standing in the space

What is the loss factor, and what are the rentable and usable square feet?
Who was the last tenant, and what stays: walls, wiring, furniture?
What work will the landlord do before delivery, and by when?
How long did the landlord take to approve the previous tenant's drawings?
Who occupies the floors above and below?
What are the lobby hours, and is there weekend access?

Leave the rent conversation to your broker, after the tour. Warning signs in a building, such as vague answers on overtime air or freight, are covered in the lease red flags guide.

Why a checklist tour stays inside one price band

A checklist only compares like with like. When the floors on a tour sit at similar asking rents, the differences you write down are about light, power and layout, not about what more money buys. That is how we suggest setting up a checklist tour, and a broker who knows the comparable floors walks it with you. The block below shows the middle band of what we list by asking rent, with the size and the current figure for each floor.

Floors asking $50 to $75 per square foot

Live from our listings · 6 of the 20, cheapest first

20 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

Every available floor, with asking rents →

The full guide

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

What should a tech team bring on a property tour?

The one-page sheets, the list of deal-breakers, a phone for photographs and video, and a tape measure for second visits. For second visits, add an engineer or someone from IT who can assess the electrical supply, the cabling and a home for the network gear. How to tour office space has the general checklist.

How do we find out which fiber providers serve a building?

Ask the landlord's agent on the tour, and ask to see where the service enters the floor. Then have your broker confirm it in writing with the building's management before a letter of intent, since a provider in the building is not always a provider on your floor.

Is a 3D scan enough to run this checklist?

For part of it. Daylight and the room count can be judged from a walkthrough on a laptop. Power, air-conditioning hours, freight and noise need a visit and a conversation with the people who run the building.

What happens when a floor fails an item on the checklist?

It depends on the item. A fixable gap, such as an old electrical panel, becomes a point to negotiate: work the landlord does before delivery, or a larger allowance. A gap that cannot be fixed, such as poor daylight, ends that floor's candidacy.

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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