How Long Does It Take to Lease Office Space?

Founders usually ask this question hoping for a number of weeks or months. We do not give one in a general guide, because the honest range is wide and the figure for your project depends on choices you have not made yet. What we can do is explain the phases every lease passes through, what makes each one longer, and which of them you can influence.

The most important thing to understand is that the timeline does not end when the lease is signed. For any space that needs work, signing is roughly the midpoint. The second half is design, permitting and construction, and it is the part first-time tenants most often leave out of their plan.

1. Defining the requirement: deciding how much space you need, where, for how long and at what budget. This is entirely in your hands and is often the phase that drifts, because it needs agreement among founders and sometimes the board.
2. Searching and touring: your broker surveys the market, you shortlist buildings and visit them. This moves quickly when decision makers are available for tours and slowly when they are not.
3. Proposals and the letter of intent: landlords respond to a request for proposal, terms go back and forth, and the main business points are settled in a letter of intent.
4. Lease negotiation: the landlord's attorney drafts the lease from the letter of intent, and your attorney negotiates it. Several rounds of comments are normal.
5. Design and permitting: an architect prepares a space plan and construction drawings, a contractor prices them and the drawings are submitted for a building permit.
6. Construction and move-in: the space is built, inspected and handed over. Furniture, cabling, internet and security systems are installed, and you move.

Some of these can overlap. Design work can begin while the lease is being negotiated, for example, if both sides are confident the deal will close. Others cannot. Construction cannot start without a permit, and a permit application needs finished drawings.

The time between choosing a building and signing a lease varies more than people expect. These are the common causes.

• Only one option. A tenant negotiating with a single landlord has little to trade, so each point takes longer to win, or is not won at all. Competing proposals tend to speed responses up.
• Credit questions. If the landlord is unsure about a young company's finances, the discussion of deposits and guarantees can run for some time. Having financial information ready shortens it.
• Unusual requests. Rights that are not standard for the building, such as extra power, rooftop equipment or broad termination rights, need internal approval from the owner and sometimes its lender.
• Slow turnarounds. Each side's attorney has other clients. A lease that sits for a week between drafts adds up quickly over several rounds.
• Subleases need a third signature. A sublease requires the building owner's consent in addition to agreement between you and the sublandlord, and the master lease usually gives the owner a set period to respond.

Construction is where most schedules are won or lost. The amount of work is the biggest factor, and it follows directly from the condition of the space you choose.

• Condition of the space. A suite that was recently an office and needs only cosmetic changes is quick. Raw space with no ceilings, lighting or air distribution needs everything built.
• Drawings. Construction drawings take time to prepare and usually need the landlord's approval before they can be priced or submitted.
• Permits. Review times depend on the municipality, the scope of work and the permit office's workload at that moment. This step is outside everyone's control, so it deserves the most margin.
• Long-lead items. Some equipment and materials must be ordered well ahead, and supplemental cooling units, electrical gear, specialty glass and certain furniture are frequent examples. One late item can hold up completion.
• Specialty rooms. Server rooms, labs and spaces with extra power or cooling add engineering, coordination and inspection.
• Changes. Altering the design after pricing or during construction is the most reliable way to add both time and cost.
• Internet service. If a carrier has to bring a new circuit into the building, the installation can take longer than the construction itself. Order it early.

Ask who bears the cost if the space is delivered late. The lease should say when rent starts if the landlord's work is not finished, and what happens if a delay is caused by the tenant.

If you need to be in quickly, the practical answer is to choose space that needs little or no construction.

• Coworking: available almost immediately, on the operator's terms, with limited control.
• Furnished sublease: often quick once the landlord consents, but your term is limited by the sublandlord's lease and you take the layout as it is.
• Spec suite: built by the landlord in advance on a direct lease. Fast, with a standard layout you did not choose.
• Second-generation space: a suite a previous tenant built that happens to suit you. Minor changes are far quicker than a new build.

In each case you give up some combination of layout, identity and term in exchange for speed. For many early teams that is a fair trade. Where the space must be shaped around specific needs, such as hardware or controlled access, a custom build-out and its longer schedule may be unavoidable.

Timelines are easiest to manage when you start from the date you must be operating in the new space and work in reverse.

1. Fix the date you need to be in. It is usually set by a lease or coworking agreement ending, or by a hiring wave.
2. Find the notice date in your current agreement. You may need to commit to leaving before the new space is ready.
3. Decide whether you can accept existing space or need a build-out, since that choice sets most of the schedule.
4. Ask your broker and an architect for a realistic schedule for each shortlisted space, including permit review in that municipality.
5. Add margin for the steps nobody controls, especially permits and equipment deliveries.
6. Identify a fallback, such as a short extension where you are or temporary space, in case the schedule slips.

The pattern we see most often is not a slow process but a late start. At TAG, one of the first things we do with a technology client is build this backward schedule, so that the decision about how much construction to take on is made with the calendar in view.