Office Space for 10 People in Union Square

Where the 175 square feet actually goes

The allowance is a planning number, not a desk measurement. Ten workstations take 550 to 650 square feet once the chair and the aisle behind it are counted, and a conference room seating all ten adds 250 to 300. A huddle room, a phone room, a pantry and somewhere for coats and the network rack bring the enclosed program near 1,200. Circulation takes the rest, and a corridor nobody sits in rents at the same rate as a desk.

Teams need more than 175 the moment they put doors on things: four private offices push the figure toward 200 or 225, because a wall eats clearance on both faces, and client hosting or stored inventory does the same. Teams need less when desk sharing is real and the pantry doubles as the second meeting room, which lands a hybrid company nearer 130 to 150 a person.

What ten people cost here, and against the city

At $60 per square foot per year, 1,750 square feet is $105,000 a year and $8,750 a month. The same footprint at the $72 citywide median across our book is $126,000 a year, $10,500 a month, so this price saves a ten-person company $21,000 annually, nearly two and a half months of rent. Union Square's median across the three floors we represent is $87.50, which would put 1,750 feet at $153,125 a year, or $12,760 a month. The $60 on this page is the bottom of that range, on the market because the cheapest space in the submarket is also the only small one.

Rent is only the start. Electricity is usually billed on top at $2 to $4 per square foot per year, $3,500 to $7,000 annually at this size. At a customary 3% escalation $60 reaches $67.53 by year five, turning the $8,750 payment into roughly $9,848. Landlords defend the face number on small floors and concede in free rent and improvement dollars instead, so judge offers on net effective rent.

What a floor for ten genuinely needs

Ten people generate more enclosed rooms than the headcount implies. One conference room seating eight to ten is not optional, and a second small room stops two people on a call from holding the only door all afternoon. Two phone rooms is the honest minimum once half the calendar is video. One contiguous floor matters more at this size than at any other, and 2,500 feet keeps everyone on a single plate.

The number on the lease is rentable, which folds in a share of lobbies, corridors and mechanical space, while usable runs 15-25% below. On 1,750 rentable feet that is 1,313 to 1,488 usable, a real allowance of 131 to 149 a person. The 2,500 foot floor on our book delivers 1,875 to 2,125 usable, or 188 to 213 a person for a team of ten. Ask for the loss factor in writing and commission a test fit before signing.

Signing for ten with fifteen in view

Fifteen people at the same allowance need 2,625 square feet, $157,500 a year at $60 and $13,125 a month. The floor on this page is 2,500 feet rated for about 14 desks, so it carries a ten-person company to fourteen, and then it gets interesting: fifteen people on 2,500 feet is 167 square feet each, workable open-plan, uncomfortable once private offices are built. Moving twice in three years pays for construction twice.

Term should follow the forecast's honesty, not its ambition. Five years earns the better rate and a real improvement allowance; three funds less buildout, and the premium buys a cheap exit. Flexibility is written into clauses rather than bought in square feet: a first-offer right on contiguous space, an expansion option priced in advance, a termination right costed in months, and a sublet clause settled before signature, since landlord drafts hedge subletting with consent, recapture and profit sharing.

What Union Square has for ten people right now

• 29 West 17th Street [Partial 7th Floor]: 2,500 sq ft at $60 per square foot, about $12,500 a month, furnished and wired, hardwood floors and exposed ceilings, rated for roughly 14 desks

That is the only floor in our Union Square inventory worth an afternoon at this size. It gives ten people about 250 square feet each, growth room rather than waste, and being plug and play it can be occupied in weeks. A floor plan and a 3D walkthrough are published with it.

The rest of the submarket is aimed elsewhere. 900 Broadway [Suite 202] is 4,000 square feet at $115, about $38,333 a month, and the entire 2nd floor at 836 Broadway runs 13,754 feet with pricing on request. Three floors, one of them relevant, in a submarket where the 4/5/6, N/Q/R/W and L all land at 14th Street and small floors go in weeks. If the timing does not work, Flatiron, NoMad and Greenwich Village are a walk away.