After the incubator: Is real estate a challenge for startups in NYC?

If you haven’t stayed in the loop, let’s just say it’s been quite a busy year for NYC. Last month, we saw NY taxi cabs outfitted with slick Square payment systems and iPads, and before that we noted the new initiatives to bring WiFi and cellular reception into our beloved, sticky and often uncomfortably humid subway stations. We also covered NYC’s ambitious open data policy, a subway art app, the BigApps NYC competition and NY’s Facebook photo contest, which taps Instagram and Hipstamatic.

NYCEDC, the city’s official non-profit economic development corporation, has played a major role in facilitating NYC’s emerging tech scene, along with NYC Digital. Now, NYCEDC is looking to help resolve one of the major issues for startups post incubator: space.

NYCEDC already has a network of 10 business incubators spread across the city, but what happens after its startups evolve and move on? To better understand what’s happening, and before blindly taking action, NYCEDC is soliciting feedback from startups on their “step out space.” In other words, the survey is an effort to understand:

1. The challenges faced by such startups, and others like them, in finding real estate in New York City
2. How NYCEDC can work with landlords and startups to facilitate their search for real estate, and
3. What trends relevant to this issue are occurring in the local real estate market.

Answers to the survey will help the city better support its entrepreneurial and startup community, so if you fit the bill, you can participate here.

NY’s co-working spaces and incubators appear to be thriving, but embracing an entire office is quite the leap for any company. This is why NY tapping into its own real-estate market and working with landlords is so important. This way, at least everybody’s on the same page. The fact that the city continues to show us some love is exactly what helps new companies launch and continue to thrive.

From hitting the streets for product demos to tech scholarships and innovative companies appearing everyday, New York City’s tech startup scene continues to explode.