Short-Term Commercial Leasing in NYC: How Nomad Finds and Closes a Short-Term Floor

Step one: your brief, and the first call from a broker

Send three numbers: headcount, your move-in date and a monthly budget. Add one sentence saying the horizon is short, and how short. Short-term floors go quickly, and a search that states its term up front is shown the floors that will actually take it.

A broker reaches out within the hour during business hours to fill in what a form cannot: neighborhoods, how the team works, and whether 12 months is firm or 24 would do. Use the same call to ask what you would sign before the search begins, because a short horizon leaves little time to sort that out later.

Step two: a shortlist from the three places short-term floors come from

A first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours. It draws on three kinds of space and says which is which:

• Prebuilt floors an owner will lease for one to three years, often to fill a gap between larger tenants.
• Subleases, where the term is whatever remains on the current tenant's lease.
• Flex by Nomad: furnished, serviced private floors through our own program, typically for 12, 24 or 36 months.

Each entry carries its size and, where one is quoted, its asking rent. The furnished and prebuilt floors page holds the ones we publish, and the block below shows a selection.

Step three: tours, then a proposal on the floor you choose

A tour is usually three to five floors and fits in one afternoon. Short-term offers can look simpler than they are, so before any proposal goes out we convert each finalist to one monthly cost: rent, electricity, and anything the floor still needs in furniture or wiring.

The proposal, a letter of intent, then fixes the business terms with the owner: rent, term, any free rent, the security, and the date you get the keys.

Step four: the lease, where a short term still has room to negotiate

Terms can be negotiated on a short lease, and owners often give on these points more readily than on rent, because what worries them on a short deal is an empty floor:

• A renewal option with the rent method agreed now.
• Sublet rights, even on 18 months.
• Ownership of the furniture at the end.
• Space taken as is and returned as is, with no duty to strip it.
• A holdover rate you can live with if a move runs late.

We carry the business points and hold the draft to the letter of intent, and your attorney reviews the document. How a short-term HQ lease works covers the clauses in full.

Step five: keys, usually two to four weeks after signing

On a furnished or prebuilt floor there is nothing to build, so the weeks after signing go to insurance certificates, internet and access cards. Two to four weeks is typical. A sublease also waits on the owner's consent, which we request the day terms are agreed.

After move-in the relationship continues if you want it to: our facilities management team can run the floor, and when the short term nears its end we run the next search.