Office Space for 20 People in Union Square

Where 175 square feet a head actually goes

Twenty workstations, counted with the chair pushed back, take 1,100 to 1,300 square feet. A conference room for twelve to fourteen adds 250 to 350, a second bookable room for six adds 150, and phone rooms take 40 to 50 apiece. A pantry, a reception point and an IT closet carry the enclosed program near 2,200 feet. Circulation absorbs the balance, and corridors rent at the same price as desks.

One pantry and one closet cost the same at twenty as at ten, so they take half as much from each share, while meeting rooms eat the saving back. Doors carry the number past 175: four or five private offices take it toward 200 or 225, since a wall consumes clearance on both faces. Genuine desk sharing pulls it down to 130 or 150, which is 2,600 to 3,000 square feet for a hybrid twenty.

What twenty people cost here, and against the city

At the Union Square median of $88, $87.50 before rounding, 3,500 square feet runs $306,250 a year and $25,521 a month. The same footprint at the $72 citywide median across our book is $252,000 a year, $21,000 a month, so twenty people pay $54,250 more a year, about $4,521 a month, for the address. That premium buys the 14th Street transit convergence, which pays off or does not depending on where the twenty commute from.

Electricity sits outside the rent, usually billed on top at $2 to $4 per square foot per year, $7,000 to $14,000 annually here. A customary 3% escalation takes $87.50 to $98.48 by year five, lifting the monthly payment to roughly $28,724 without a single new hire. Asking rent is not taking rent, so compare offers on net effective rent across the term.

What a floor for twenty genuinely needs

Three enclosed rooms is the minimum here and five is comfortable. One has to hold the whole company, and a table for twenty wants 400 to 500 square feet, which is why many floors this size build for twelve and take the all-hands into the open plan. A second bookable room stops the largest being blocked all afternoon, and three or four phone rooms is honest once half the calendar is video. Both units on our book here are single connected spaces, and splitting twenty over two half floors pays twice for reception and circulation.

The number in the lease is rentable, folding in a share of lobbies, corridors and mechanical space, while usable runs 15-25% below. On 3,500 rentable that is 2,625 to 2,975 usable, a real allowance of 131 to 149 per person, and the gap costs $45,938 to $76,563 a year at the local median for area nobody sits in. Get the loss factor in writing and pay for a test fit.

Signing for twenty with thirty in view

Thirty people at the same allowance need 5,250 square feet, $459,375 a year and $38,281 a month at the submarket median. That sits $625 a year under what 900 Broadway asks today for 4,000 feet, which is the case against the top of the range: a thirty-person rent for a twenty-three-person floor. Neither reaches thirty anyway, since 900 Broadway is rated for roughly 23 desks and 29 West 17th for 14, so twenty move in dense and hit the wall inside a year.

Five years earns the better rate and the serious improvement allowance, and on 3,500 feet every $10 per square foot of allowance is $35,000. Three years funds less construction and prices in a cheap exit. Buy the rest of the flexibility in clauses: a right of first offer on contiguous space, an expansion option priced at signing rather than at market, and a sublet clause settled before signature, since landlord drafts hedge it with consent and recapture. Expect a good guy guarantee and three to six months of security either way.

What Union Square has for twenty people right now

• 900 Broadway [Suite 202]: 4,000 sq ft at $115, about $38,333 a month, pantry and conference room in place, hardwood floors, roughly 23 desks, 3D walkthrough published
• 29 West 17th Street [Partial 7th Floor]: 2,500 sq ft at $60, about $12,500 a month, furnished and plug and play, exposed ceilings, roughly 14 desks, floor plan and walkthrough published

These bracket the target rather than hitting it. 900 Broadway gives twenty people 200 rentable feet each and headroom to 23, at $12,812 a month above the estimate on this page. 29 West 17th gives them 125 feet each for $13,021 a month less, furnished and occupiable in weeks. One is comfort bought forward, the other money saved against an earlier move.

The third floor here, 836 Broadway's entire 2nd at 13,754 square feet with pricing on request, suits a company four times this size. Three floors is our whole Union Square book, and they go to whoever is ready that week.