Our offices are at Jackson and Federal, in the Monadnock building. I live in Oak Park; the Blue Line spits me out at the door of my office.

Joel Spolsky wrote an article on finding office space:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/OfficeNewYork.html

If you're running up against really expensive space, you may be falling into the trap of trying to buy "class A" space, or space that's jacked up because of "amenities" you don't care about.