In 2004, I worked with a customer J who was looking for sublet space exclusively. We finally nailed on a space: It's near Grand Central in a nice building with market rate at about $42/sf. But we got the sublet for $32/sf for a 4-year term. J got the space that was nicely built with furniture and phone lines in place. It cost J minimum to move in to the new office space.
The better part of the story is: J rented the space a lot bigger than needed. So J could sublet out more than 50% of the space to tenant who seeks smaller size space. Between 2004 and 2008, the rent in that building went from $42/sf to $65/sf. J made more money from renting out their office space than from their core business.
J took some risk in renting a space bigger than necessary. The owner of J was a savvy observer of Manhattan commercial real estate market. He bet the office rental rate will got up significantly and small office space will be especially in high demand. His bet was right at the time and he profited handsomely from his transactions during the next four years.
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