Subleasing part of your office is a commercial decision that quietly becomes a security one. The moment another company's staff hold credentials to your floor, the question of who can enter what stops being obvious, and most of it has to be settled before anyone moves in.
Most NYC commercial buildings run a master key system. Your suite cylinder is keyed so that your key opens your door and the building's master opens it too, for cleaning, maintenance and emergency access.
Fitting an ordinary cylinder bought off a shelf breaks that. It also commonly breaches the lease, and it tends to be discovered at the least convenient moment, usually when building staff need access and cannot get it.
The correct route is a cylinder keyed into the existing system, which a locksmith can arrange in coordination with building management. You get a new key, the building master still works, and the lease is intact.
Start with the managing agent rather than finishing with them. Buildings are generally cooperative about this and considerably less so when asked to fix it afterwards.
The useful question is not whether to give them a key. It is which spaces they need, and the answer is rarely all of them.
Typical boundaries: their own suite, shared circulation, and the restrooms. Typically excluded: your server or comms room, storage, records, and any space where client material sits.
Where the floor is open plan and genuinely shared, that needs saying out loud in the sublease rather than being assumed. Shared space with unclear boundaries is where disputes start.
If the building uses fobs or cards rather than keys, this is easier, because credentials can be scoped per door and revoked individually. That is a strong argument for using the building system rather than issuing mechanical keys.
How many keys or fobs are issued, and to whom by name.
Whether copying is permitted, which for a restricted keyway is controlled by the keyway itself rather than by the clause.
What happens on termination: return of all credentials by a stated date, and your right to rekey at the subtenant's cost if they are not returned.
Who pays for a rekey if a credential is lost during the term. Agreeing this at signature is straightforward; agreeing it after a loss is not.
Access outside business hours, which in many buildings is controlled centrally and needs registering with the managing agent rather than with you.
Collect every credential against the list, then rekey the suite cylinder regardless. Mechanical keys are copied quietly, and a departing subtenant with a grievance is exactly the scenario the rekey protects against.
Deregister every fob and card. This is the step most often missed, and it is the one that cannot be defeated by a copy.
Tell the managing agent the sublease has ended so building-level access is revoked too. Your suite is not the only door that mattered.
If anything sensitive sat behind an internal door during the term, consider whether that cylinder needs attention as well.
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Generally no. Most NYC commercial buildings run a master key system, and fitting an unrelated cylinder breaks building access and commonly breaches the lease.
Through a locksmith coordinating with building management, using a cylinder keyed into the existing system. You get a new key and the building master still works.
How many credentials are issued and to whom, whether copying is permitted, the return obligation on termination, who pays for a rekey after a loss, and how after-hours access is handled.
Yes for mechanical keys, because copies are made quietly and are not returned. Fob-based systems are different, since credentials can simply be deregistered.
Deregistering fobs and telling the managing agent the sublease has ended, so building-level access is revoked rather than just the suite door.