Tenant Representation in NYC: What the Service Covers

Tenant representation means a licensed broker runs your office search and negotiates for your company, not for the building. For a growing team the work covers the brief, a shortlist with real asking rents, tours, proposals compared on one basis, the letter of intent and the lease. In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, so the service usually costs a tenant nothing out of pocket. Nomad Property Group is a licensed New York real estate broker, and once you send a brief a broker reaches out within the hour during business hours.

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Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

What a growing company gets from tenant representation

A company that is hiring has a harder search than a stable one. The office has to fit the team it will be in eighteen months as well as the team it is today. A tenant representative turns that uncertainty into a written requirement and then works it through the market.

A brief built on headcount now and at the end of the plan, the date you need to be in, and a monthly budget.
A first shortlist, which can be ready within 24 hours, showing the size and asking rent of each floor.
Tours grouped into one afternoon, then a test fit on the finalists so square feet become desks and rooms.
Landlord proposals put on one basis: what each floor costs across the whole term once free rent and the improvement allowance are counted.
The letter of intent and the lease, negotiated alongside your attorney.

When to bring a representative in

Earlier than most teams expect. A custom buildout typically takes 10 to 16 weeks after signing, and the search, the proposals and the lease all come before it. A team with a fixed move-in date should start from that date and count backward. How long it takes to get an office sets out each phase.

The other moment is a renewal. A tenant who has toured real alternatives negotiates a renewal from a stronger position than one who only asks for a better number. Renew or relocate works through that decision.

What it costs, and the conflict question to ask

In most transactions the landlord pays the broker fee, and the lease and commission terms settle it on each deal. Ask any firm how it is paid on yours before you sign a representation agreement.

Then ask one more thing. Nomad also offers agency leasing and owner representation, which means it leases some buildings for their owners. On your search it works for you. If a building it leases for an owner lands on your shortlist, that is dual agency, which in New York needs the informed consent of both sides. Put the question to every brokerage you interview; how to choose a tenant rep broker lists the rest.

After the lease is signed

Representation that stops at the signature leaves the hardest stretch to the tenant. Nomad has delivered 300+ offices and leased 2M+ square feet, and the same firm runs construction management for the buildout and facilities management once the team is in. For a company that would rather not run a buildout at all, Flex by Nomad offers a furnished private floor on flexible terms.

What is on our book right now

Live from our listings · 6 of the 49, cheapest first

Nomad lists 49 floors across 11 Manhattan submarkets right now, from 2,500 to 27,344 square feet. 46 publish an asking rent: $43 to $200 per square foot per year, with a median of $75.

Floors: 49
Sizes: 2,500-27,344 sq ft
Asking rent: $43-$200 / sq ft
Median: $75 / sq ft

All 49 available floors, with asking rents →

The full guide

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

Is tenant representation only worth it for large companies?

No. A 3,000 square foot lease raises the same questions about the guarantee, escalations and the deposit that a far larger floor does, and a small company has less pull to get a bad clause changed afterward. Nomad's work leans toward startups and growing companies leasing a first or second New York floor.

What should we send to get a shortlist started?

Three things: headcount, timing and budget. Neighborhoods and must-haves help, but those three are enough for a first shortlist of real floors, each with its size and asking rent, which can be ready within 24 hours. Send them through the start page.

Does a tenant representative replace a real estate attorney?

No. The broker carries the business terms: rent, term, free rent, the improvement allowance and the security. The landlord's attorney usually drafts the lease and yours reviews it. The two work side by side, and during the lease stage the broker holds the landlord to what the letter of intent said.

How is a tenant representative different from the agent who shows the building?

The agent showing a building is usually its listing broker, hired by the owner to lease that building on the owner's best terms. A tenant representative is hired by the company that will occupy the space and compares that building with every other one that fits. Both roles are legitimate. What matters is knowing which one you are talking to.

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

Or call 646-688-3158