Tenant Advisory for Startup Teams: A Project Plan for Whoever Runs the Search

If the office search has landed on your desk, tenant advisory real estate services take most of the work off it. The advisor surveys the market, builds the shortlist, books the tours, turns each landlord proposal into the same cost format, and handles the negotiation through the letter of intent and the lease, working with your attorney. What stays with the company is deciding: the headcount, the date, the budget and the final choice of floor. Your job as the operations lead, chief of staff or office manager is to run that decision. This page is the project plan, and the floors below fit about 26 people.

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Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

Three inputs to settle before the first call

Headcount: the team now and the number expected in 12 to 18 months, from whoever owns the hiring plan.
Date: the day people must be working in the new office. Allow two to four weeks from signing for a furnished floor, and 10 to 16 weeks where a custom buildout is needed.
Budget: a monthly figure that finance has approved, with room for electricity and the deposit.

Get all three in writing from the people who can change them. With those, a first shortlist can be ready within 24 hours, and the shortlist guide shows what comes back.

Who decides, and who goes on the tours

The signer, usually a founder: on the first round of tours and at the final choice.
You: the calendar, the comparison sheet, and the practical eye for storage, the pantry and the freight elevator.
Someone from engineering or IT: on the second visit, for power, data and where the network equipment goes.
A designated skeptic, whose job is to find the flaw.

Keep the party small. Plan on three to five floors per outing, which a single afternoon covers, and use the tour checklist for what to look at on each.

What the advisor takes off your desk, and what stays on it

The advisor handles the market survey, including subleases and floors not yet advertised, the tour schedule, the test fits, the requests for proposal, the comparison of the replies, and the negotiation.

What stays with you: internal approvals, engaging the company's attorney, the financial documents a landlord will ask for, insurance, and the move itself. Put those on your own plan in the first week, so that none is still unassigned when the lease draft arrives.

What to report back after each round

After the tours, one page per floor, in the same format: monthly cost at the asking rent, usable area and desk count, condition (raw, pre-built or furnished), earliest move-in date, and open questions.

After the proposals, the same floors again with the cost over the whole term, the free rent, the improvement allowance, the escalations, the security deposit and the guarantee. Add a ranking in two sentences and the reason each rejected floor was dropped. A short written ranking ends a debate that would otherwise reopen every week.

A team of 26 gets the same advisory as a headquarters

Tenant advisory is not reserved for large headquarters leases. A floor for two dozen people raises the same questions about the guarantee, the escalations and the way out, and much of Nomad's work is for startups on a first or second lease. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee.

Floors that fit a team of 26

Live from our listings · 6 of the 24, smallest first

A team of 26 plans on about 4,550 square feet at 175 a person. 24 floors on our book sit in the range that fits, 4,550 to 8,190 square feet, asking $44 to $135 per square foot per year.

Floors: 24
Sizes: 4,900-7,500 sq ft
Asking rent: $44-$135 / 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:

What timeline should I give the founders?

For a pre-built floor, six to eight weeks counted from the first tour. For a floor that has to be built out, four to six months. Decisions are the variable: a team that answers quickly keeps to the short end.

Do I need a budget line to engage a tenant advisor?

Usually not. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee. Confirm that with the advisor before you give finance a number, and ask what the company would be asked to sign. The company's own costs are its attorney, the deposit, and whatever the move and the fit-out require.

Should the whole team see the floor before we sign?

Not on the first round. A large group slows the afternoon and shows the landlord's agent how keen you are. Bring the wider team to the second visit, or once the letter of intent is agreed.

What do I tell finance the office costs beyond rent?

Five lines. Electricity adds about $2 to $4 for every square foot in a year. The rent itself steps up annually, usually by 2.5 to 3 percent. Then come the deposit or a letter of credit, desks, chairs and cabling, and any construction the landlord's allowance leaves unpaid. What office space really costs prices each line.

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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