Tenant Real Estate Advisors: What High-Growth Companies Need Near 100 People

What 100 people need at 175 square feet each

The figure is about 17,500 rentable square feet. Usable area comes in 15 to 25 percent under that, so the space your team actually sits in is roughly 13,100 to 14,900 square feet. The allowance covers far more than desks: it also has to hold the meeting rooms, phone rooms, pantry, reception and circulation a company of this size generates.

Plan above 175 where many people need private offices, and add 15 to 25 percent if hiring continues. Office space for 100 people works the costs by neighborhood.

Where floors that size are found, and where loft buildings run out

Manhattan's office buildings come in three kinds, and they differ most in floor size. The prewar lofts of Flatiron and SoHo usually give each company a level of its own, and most of those levels are too small for 100 people. That is the usual reason a growing company leaves Flatiron: capacity, not preference.

Floors for 100 are found in the larger loft buildings, often in Chelsea, and in the towers around Bryant Park, Grand Central and Midtown, where plates are large and column-free. The block below shows the ones on our list that fit, with sizes and asking rents, in whichever districts have them.

One floor or two for 100 people

A single floor keeps everyone within reach: one pantry, one reception, one front door. Two floors in the same building are the usual alternative when no single plate fits. They come with a second pantry, a second entrance and, if you want them joined, a stair that costs money to build and may have to be removed at the end.

The loss factor applies on each level, so a split seldom gives the usable area its combined square footage suggests. We ask for a test fit on both arrangements before any proposal.

Surplus space, and subletting it

A company at 70 people leasing for 100 has desks it will not use for a year. There are three ways to carry that.

• Leave it open as collaboration space that becomes desks as the team grows, with no construction.
• Sublet part of the floor, where the lease permits partial subletting and the landlord consents.
• Take less now and hold a right of first offer on adjoining space.

The second depends on the sublet clause: consent that cannot be unreasonably withheld, and a narrow right for the landlord to take the space back. Your attorney should confirm what the clause allows.

The advisory process on a 100-person search, start to finish

The sequence is a written brief, a survey of the market, a shortlist toured together, test fits on the finalists, every landlord proposal restated as a cost over the term, the letter of intent, and then the business terms carried through the lease. If the floor needs building, the construction team takes over.

Hire an advisor before the first tour. Where the floor has to be built, allow four to six months between that tour and the first day at desks, and at this size there are fewer candidates to choose from. From Series A to Series B covers the stage before this one.