JLL begins online commercial real estate marketplace in Washington

The commercial real estate firm JLL  has introduced on an online transactional marketplace for small tenants in the Washington, D.C., area.

The Chicago-based company’s Web platform, HiRise, which was launched Thursday, allows tenants and landlords to connect and complete real estate transactions online.

JLL said HiRise is expected to create a leasing arena previously not available to tenants needing less than 5,000 square feet of space.

“A huge block of tenants is being underserved,” Andy O'Brien, a JLL senior vice president who is co-founder of HiRise, said in a statement. “Long leases, large square footage requirements and strict terms are prohibitive and resource-intensive for small- to mid-sized businesses, especially high growth startups.”

JLL said its research has found that more than 500,000 U.S. businesses occupy office spaces of less than 5,000 square feet.

In the Washington, D.C., area, these companies outnumber large tenants three to one, the company said, and the average transaction size has dropped 35 percent since 2010. In contrast, the number of office leases larger than 10,000 square feet have been reduced by half in that timeframe, with the average lease size falling to 4,100 square feet.

HiRise features office space in 10 Washington neighborhoods and five submarkets, including Arlington’s Crystal City and Alexandria in  Virginia.

JLL said Washington was picked as the platform's first market because of the city's evolving transaction size and its mix of startups, small businesses and government contractors.