Office Space for 10 People in Chelsea

A 10-person team needs roughly 1,750 square feet in Chelsea, allowing about 175 sq ft per person including meeting rooms and common space. Nomad currently has 2 spaces in that range at a median of $52 per square foot per year, about $7,583 a month for 1,750 sq ft.

Updated 2026-10-01 · 1,750 sq ft · 2 matching · Nomad Group

Team size10 people

Space needed~1,750 sq ft

Per person175 sq ft

Median, matching floors$52 / sq ft

Est. monthly$7,583

Worth knowing

Ten is the headcount at which a company stops improvising an office and commits to one. It is also the headcount New York serves worst, because the loft floors that define a submarket like Chelsea were cut for tenants of fifteen and up. Take the plate you will need in two years, and negotiate the exit that lets you be wrong about it.

What 175 square feet a person absorbs

The allowance is not a desk measurement. A workstation takes perhaps 25 square feet of surface and closer to 60 once the chair and the aisle behind it are counted, so ten of them come to about 600 feet. A conference room for the whole company, a huddle or phone room, a pantry and a landing zone for coats and network gear push you near 1,150. Circulation takes the rest, which is why the planning figure is 175 and not 120.

Teams need more the moment they put doors on things. Give four people private offices and the number drifts toward 200 or 225, since every wall consumes circulation on both sides of itself. Weekly client hosting or stored product does the same. Teams need less when they share desks in earnest and let the pantry serve as the second meeting room.

What ten people cost here, and elsewhere

1,750 square feet at $52 per square foot per year is $91,000 annually, $7,583 a month. Against the $72 citywide median across our book, the same footprint costs $126,000 a year, or $10,500 a month, so the Chelsea decision saves a ten-person company roughly $35,000 a year. Chelsea's own median across the nine floors we represent today is $56, which would price 1,750 feet at $8,167 a month.

Rent is not occupancy cost. Electricity is usually billed on top at $2 to $4 per square foot per year, adding $292 to $583 a month at this size. At a customary 3% escalation, $52 reaches $58.53 by year five, so a payment that felt like $7,583 on signing day is nearer $8,535 by the end of the term.

What a floor for ten has to hold

Ten people generate more enclosed-room demand than the headcount suggests. One conference room seating eight to ten is the minimum, because the whole company has to fit in it, and a second four-person room keeps the first from being tied up all day by two people on a call. Budget a phone room for every four or five staff. One contiguous floor is the other requirement: splitting ten people across two part-floors costs the overheard conversation that makes a small company quick.

New York leases on rentable square feet, which fold in a share of lobbies, corridors and mechanical rooms, while usable area runs 15-25% below that. On 1,750 rentable feet, usable lands between 1,313 and 1,488, so the real allowance is 131 to 149 square feet a person. Ask for the loss factor in writing and commission a test fit before signing anything.

Planning for fifteen before signing for ten

Most of the ten-person companies we represent are fifteen-person companies eighteen months out, and fifteen people need 2,625 square feet at the same allowance, $136,500 a year at $52, or $11,375 a month. Both floors on this page already cover that. Taking 2,978 feet at a headcount of ten reads as waste on a spreadsheet and as foresight the week you sign your fifteenth offer letter, because a second move pays for the buildout twice.

Term length should follow how honest the forecast is. Three years prices worse and funds less buildout than five, and what it buys is the right to be wrong cheaply. Five years earns the better rate and a real allowance, and should be signed only alongside an exit: a first-offer right on contiguous space, a termination option priced in months of rent, or a sublet clause negotiated rather than accepted. Landlord drafts hedge subletting with consent and recapture rights, so settle that language up front.

What Chelsea has for ten people right now

153 W 27th Street [Partial 3rd Floor]: 2,978 sq ft at $44 per square foot, about $10,919 a month, sized for roughly 17 desks
153 West 27th Street [Partial 11th Floor]: 2,937 sq ft at $60 per square foot, about $14,685 a month, furnished, with a pantry and exposed ceilings

Both sit in the same West 27th Street building, and the $3,766 monthly gap between them is the furnished-versus-raw argument in one line. The 11th floor publishes a floor plan and a 3D walkthrough; the 3rd floor asks $44, the bottom of Chelsea's range. Either gives a company of ten close to 295 square feet a person.

Neither is 1,750 feet, and that is the market rather than the search: Chelsea's floors run from 2,937 to 18,668 square feet, so the small end here is thin. Grow into a plate sized for seventeen, widen into Flatiron, Meatpacking or Hudson Yards, or look downtown. Send the headcount, the move date and the rent ceiling, and the shortlist comes back priced.

How much office space does a 10-person team need?

About 1,750 square feet, at 175 sq ft per person. That covers desks, meeting rooms, a pantry and circulation. Teams planning to grow usually take 15–25% more.

What does office space for 10 people cost in Chelsea?

Across the 2 Chelsea floors that fit this footprint the median is $52 per square foot per year, so 1,750 sq ft costs roughly $7,583 per month, or $91,000 annually before electricity and buildout.

What is available right now for a 10-person team in Chelsea?

2 spaces fit that footprint: 153 W 27th Street [Partial 3rd Floor] (2,978 sq ft, $44/sq ft); 153 West 27th Street [Partial 11th Floor] (2,937 sq ft, $60/sq ft).

What is a loss factor and why does it matter at this size?

New York rents on rentable square feet, which include a share of lobbies, corridors and mechanical space. Usable area typically runs 15–25% below rentable, so a floor that “fits” on paper can be tight in practice. Always plan the layout on usable feet.

Should we lease for the team we have or the team we're hiring?

Take the hiring plan seriously but not literally: most growing teams lease 15–25% over current headcount, or negotiate expansion rights or a shorter term instead of paying for empty desks from day one.

Furnished or buildout at this size?

Pre-built and furnished floors trade some identity for speed: weeks instead of months. A custom buildout pays back when the team will stay past the disruption. The decision is mostly about how certain the two-year headcount is.

Does hybrid change how much space we need?

Yes, but less than expected. Desk sharing shrinks workstations, then meeting rooms, phone booths and collaboration space grow to fill the gap. Most hybrid teams land only 10–20% below a full-time footprint.