With tigers and other hungry predators lurking about, speed is a critical element of survival for your average bush-dwelling gazelle, and when it comes to commercial real estate, the same is true for the technology companies that have come to be labeled “gazelles” by the business world.

Known for their rapid growth and need to secure offices that will attract and retain skilled employees, gazelle companies are finding it increasingly difficult to find adequate quarters in both downtown Boston and Cambridge, as well as throughout most of the suburbs. Those who do win the space race are confronted with the daunting demands of building out their new quarters and then supplying and maintaining the property.

To meet those needs, Jones Lang LaSalle has developed a unique platform to assist emerging companies. Gazelle @ Jones Lang LaSalle is an integrated service-delivery program that will offer a broad band of real estate services to such companies, according to Don Polishuk, a JLL executive leading the effort. The concept comes at a time, he said, when resources at start-ups and e-commerce companies “are stretched to the limit.”

“Emerging companies will gain the competitive advantage of a strategically-planned and effectively-implemented corporate real estate department,” said Polishuk, a managing director based in JLL’s San Francisco office. “As a comprehensive, one-stop occupancy resource … Our objective is to insulate their management from being distracted by facility and administration infrastructure details and allow them to focus their time, energies and abilities on building their business.”

JLL Vice President Kenneth Shaffer uses the term “FFO” to describe the breadth of the platform, that being one designed to “find, fit out and operate” space for the technology companies. He and Phillip Sullivan, both in the Boston office, said last week that they believe many of their clients could benefit from Gazelle.

Such companies “are an increasing focus of our business,” said Sullivan. One common theme among such firms, he said, is the need to operate at “Internet speed,” one required in such a competitive environment.

“Speed to market is an important part of the culture of an emerging company,” Shaffer agreed. “The more these folks can focus on what they are doing and not be distracted by the infrastructure of running the company, the better off they are in getting their product to market.”

Shaffer said he often sees young companies struggling to cope with the duties foisted upon them by their real estate, noting that a broker typically ends their assignment when the ink on the lease is dry. Under Gazelle, Shaffer said there will be an entire team assembled to aid in such things as selecting an architect, overseeing construction of the interior buildout and furnishing an office with equipment and supplies. There will also be assistance in lease administration and managing the property.

“These are very technical areas that a lot of younger companies just can’t do on their own,” said Shaffer. “But now we can assemble a team that can provide those things on a one-stop shopping basis.”

Venture Capital
One interesting aspect of Gazelle is that the initiative will be targeted largely at the venture capital firms which provide the funding to the start-ups and emerging concerns. Sullivan said he believes those entities will find Gazelle attractive in ensuring the real estate does not get in the way of the company’s product delivery.

“Venture capital firms want to make sure [the funded group] is focusing their attention on the very reason they got their money in the first place,” said Sullivan. With Gazelle, “They can worry about the business they are supposed to be doing, and we provide the vertical turnkey services.”

On the flip side, Shaffer added that the service should be an added attraction a venture capital firm can use to win those popular companies being chased by multiple funding sources.

“There is a lot of capital out there, and a lot of these companies can pick and choose their [funding source],” Shaffer said. “Those companies are going to look at the venture capital firm who can bring more to the table.”

JLL will also be able to offer venture capital firms solutions heretofore not available. Many such groups do not look at their portfolio of funded ventures comprehensively, said Polishuk, but they could perhaps move one firm into space being vacated by another company in the portfolio, or it is possible the venture capital firm could instruct JLL Gazelle to find quarters that four of its companies could share, perhaps building in expansion options into the lease as well.

The key, according to Polishuk, is that Gazelle will not look at its contracts as being a one-off situation, where a lease is completed and the relationship ends.

“We want to be with these companies as they continue to grow over the next year, two years, five years, or 10 years,” said Polishuk. “And we have the ability to grow with them on a local, national and regional basis.”

Gazelle has already established relationships in various cities with contractors and related professionals to perform fit-out work and other duties connected to the platform. That will only accelerate the speed at which an assignment can be built, Sullivan said, adding that is especially important in a market like Boston where skilled labor is difficult to find.

JLL is now working with e-Colony, a venture capital firm which plans to open incubator space in several U.S. markets, including Boston. JLL is helping the firm locate property in the target cities, and ultimately hopes to work with the incubator companies as they expand into their own space.

Polishuk estimates that the JLL platform could shave as much as half the normal six months to a year that it takes for a company to go through the search and fit-out for space. The company has hired IA Associates, a California-based architectural firm with offices nationally, to provide design services. Structuretone, New York City’s largest general contractor for interiors, is on board to provide those services. Locally, Shaffer and Sullivan will be on the front end helping locate adequate quarters.

“We’re on the ground ready to go, and that’s how we can differentiate ourselves from some of these other programs,” said Polishuk.