Office Space $50 to $75 per Sq Ft in FiDi

What $50 to $75 buys in FiDi right now

Two of the four floors we represent in the Financial District fall inside this band; the other two ask $79 and $115. The band tops out at $75 while FiDi's median is $72, so this is the lower half of downtown as we hold it.

• 45 Broadway, Partial 12th Floor. 2,624 square feet asking $60 per square foot per year, $157,440 a year and about $13,120 a month. It seats roughly 15, and our record has it prebuilt with a conference room, a pantry and exposed ceilings.
• 32 Old Slip, Partial 32nd Floor. 6,997 square feet asking $64, $447,808 a year and about $37,317 a month. It seats roughly 40, arrives furnished and wired with views, and is the largest floor we hold downtown.

Nothing sits between those two sizes inside this band, so a company needing 4,000 square feet downtown takes the small floor densely, the large one with room to grow, or 17 State Street at $79.

The monthly math, run twice

Rent math never changes: asking rent per square foot times rentable square footage, divided by twelve. At 45 Broadway that is 60 times 2,624, or $157,440 a year, which is $13,120 a month. At 32 Old Slip it is 64 times 6,997, or $447,808, which is $37,317 a month.

Cost per desk is the better cut when floors differ in size. Both plan at almost exactly 175 square feet a person, so 45 Broadway lands near $875 a seat a month and 32 Old Slip near $933.

Square footage in an asking rent is rentable rather than usable, so ask for the usable figure and have a test fit drawn before committing to a headcount.

What the asking rent does not cover

Budgets in this band rarely break on rent. They break on the lines underneath it, most of which can be modeled before an offer goes out.

• Electric. Metered separately or charged as a per square foot add-on, $2 to $4 per square foot per year: $5,248 to $10,496 a year at 45 Broadway, $13,994 to $27,988 at 32 Old Slip.
• Cleaning. Base building service covers the office area on weeknights and little else; pantries, after-hours work, interior glass and special waste get billed on top.
• Real estate tax escalations. You pay a proportionate share of increases above a base year, and the base year is the negotiation: one set behind you means inheriting increases that already happened.
• Operating expense escalations. Either a share of actual increases over a base year or a flat annual bump, commonly 2.5% to 3%, and the two diverge sharply over five years.
• Buildout past the allowance. Anything above the improvement allowance is your own cash, spent during construction, and furniture, cabling, security and expediting sit outside it.

Neither floor here needs building, which takes the largest line out of the model.

What actually moves at $60 to $64

Face rent moves least in this band. The published number sets what a building is worth, so a landlord gives ground everywhere else instead.

• Free rent. A month for each year of term is where we open: five months on a five year lease, worth about $65,600 at 45 Broadway and $186,585 at 32 Old Slip.
• The improvement allowance. On a floor already built it is worth less than it looks, so we trade it toward free rent or a softer first year.
• Term. Concession is bought with time. Three year deals come back thin, and five years opens the package because the landlord is paying for certainty.
• Escalation caps. Fix the annual bump and cap the operating expense pass-through. Three percent compounding rather than two and a half costs roughly $3,400 in year five alone at 45 Broadway.
• The good guy guarantee. A personal guarantee that ends when you hand back the keys broom clean, with notice given and rent current, rather than one running the balance of the term. Negotiate the notice period and who signs, alongside the security deposit.

Where this band sits, and who it fits

The median asking rent across our New York book is $75 per square foot per year, and FiDi's own median is $71.50, which puts downtown as we hold it a shade under the city rather than above it. This band reads differently: $60 sits a full 20% under the citywide median and about 16% under FiDi's own, while $64 sits eleven dollars, about 15%, under the city. Four floors set that median, and 4 World Trade Center at $115 lifts it alone.

A 15 to 40 person company that wants a working floor immediately, and would rather spend the difference on headcount than on construction, is who this band serves, helped by 4/5, 2/3, R/W, 1, J/Z at Fulton and Wall and PATH at the WTC Oculus for staff arriving from several directions. What it does not solve is a headcount that falls between our two floors.