Where should you locate your New York tech startup office? Does your company need a coworking space in Chelsea or a basic office in DUMBO? There are so many options in the city, it's hard to know what's best.
Real estate company JLL has launched a microsite called "the square" to help tech entrepreneurs make that decision. The square provides useful details on neighborhoods including pricing, inventory, vacancy rate, notable tenants and a tenant favorability rating. An interactive map gives you the run-down on all Manhattan neighborhoods south of Midtown and into some areas of Brooklyn.
Hudson Square, home to Bloomberg and Squarespace, is the most expensive area with an asking rent of $76 per square foot, whereas if you want to hang out with the likes of Makerbot on the Brooklyn Waterfront, you can expect to pay about $23 per square foot.
You can also see which areas house the most tech companies. For example, 45 percent of downtown’s tech leases are in and around the World Trade Center and 30 percent of Brooklyn’s tech companies are in Dumbo.
The microsite also aids tech companies in figuring out which office type and lease format is best for them. Users are asked to rank the importance of factors like convenience, price and brand identity in the job search. The site then shows you how closely these preferences are matched by types of offices like coworking spaces or executive suites.
Tech has been a key-driver behind post-recession growth and tech employment has grown by 46 percent since 2009. JLL is looking to target these tech firms as they expand.
“We have heard from executives at a number of tech companies that feel they have been mostly overlooked by the major, and local, real estate firms,” executive managing director Phil Palmer said in a statement. “JLL launched a microsite to provide the leaders of this incredibly important market segment with the tools they need to find New York work space.”
