Office Lease Experts in NYC: What Expertise Looks Like From Letter of Intent to Lease

Office lease expertise in NYC shows between two documents. The broker leads the letter of intent, which fixes the business terms, from the rent and the length of the lease to free rent, the improvement allowance and the security. Your real estate attorney leads the lease, which the landlord's attorney usually drafts on the landlord's own form. The broker stays in through the drafts to hold the landlord to what the letter said. For a law, accounting or finance firm taking higher-priced space, every clause carries more money per square foot, so the handoff between those two documents is where expertise is tested. A broker does not replace the attorney.

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Updated 2026-10-03 · Nomad Group

Two documents, two leads: who does what for a professional firm

The letter of intent. The broker leads. It runs a few pages, most of it is not binding, and it settles the economics while you still have other floors to walk to. Letter of intent explains the document.
The lease. Your attorney leads. The landlord's attorney usually writes the first draft, yours marks it up, and the legal language is theirs to argue.
The overlap. The broker reads each draft against the letter and raises any business term that has moved. The attorney tells the broker which legal points are worth trading for.

What gets caught between the letter and the lease draft

Three kinds of slippage happen at this stage, and someone has to be reading for them.

Terms that drift. A free rent period that starts on a different date, or an escalation described one way in the letter and another way in the draft.
Options left out. A renewal or expansion right that both sides agreed to and the draft never mentions.
Things the draft declines to define. The condition the space will be delivered in, or the base year for operating expenses. What is left vague is settled later, on the landlord's form.

A term fixed in the letter takes one line. The same term reopened in the third draft takes lawyers on both sides. Lease red flags lists what to look for in the draft itself.

A test for lease expertise when you are choosing a firm

Ask each brokerage for a past letter of intent with the names removed, together with a note of how its terms came through in the signed lease. Then ask two things: which terms changed between the two documents, and why. A firm that works this way has such a pair ready, because tracking the letter against the drafts is part of its routine. A firm that treats the letter as the finish line will have the letter and nothing to set beside it.

What Nomad does between the letter of intent and the signature

We negotiate the letter of intent, including the options and the delivery condition, and not only the rent. We then work the lease alongside your attorney, checking each draft against the letter. After signing we stay through the buildout, which the same firm manages.

On your search, we work for you. Nomad also offers agency leasing and owner representation. Ask us where that applies. Where a point here touches the law, such as which parts of a letter bind you, it is stated generally, and your attorney should confirm it for your deal.

The floors below are in the highest price band we publish, the kind of space a professional firm often tours. At that level a single month of free rent or one escalation step is a larger sum, which is why the two documents deserve this much care.

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The full guide

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

Is a signed letter of intent binding on the tenant?

Mostly not. A letter of intent generally records the business terms without committing either side to sign a lease, though some provisions in it, such as an exclusivity clause, can bind. Which ones do depends on the wording, so have your attorney confirm before you sign it.

When should our real estate attorney join: at the letter of intent or at the lease?

Engage the attorney while the letter is being negotiated, so nothing in it surprises the person who will mark up the lease. Their heaviest work begins when the first draft arrives. For a company from outside the state, hire New York real estate counsel instead of stretching your usual lawyer.

Does the broker read the lease drafts, or is that the attorney's job alone?

Both read them, for different things. The attorney reads for legal risk and for language. The broker reads for the deal: whether the rent, the free rent, the allowance, the options and the security in the draft match what the landlord agreed to in the letter.

How long does the stretch from letter of intent to signed lease take?

Usually a matter of weeks, and a tight letter shortens it, because fewer terms are left to argue in the drafts. How long it takes to get an office places this stage in the full schedule.

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