Finding the next leasing wins before the market moves

At a glance

For leasing teams, the biggest wins come from timing. Entering accounts before competitors. Identifying tenants as expansion pressure builds. Knowing who influences site and lease decisions — even when they sit outside the target city.

JLL's leasing team had a problem: reactive outreach. They'd hear about a deal after a competitor was already in the room. They'd learn about expansion plans after the lease was signed.

They needed to flip the model — from chasing deals to anticipating them. Jeeva helped them build two forward-looking pipelines: one for near-term wins in East Bay, one for long-horizon positioning in Boise.

"The strongest leasing conversations begin long before a space is listed. They begin with knowing which tenants are likely to move next — and why."

—Trent Nakamura, Director of Leasing, JLL

The challenge: knowing the asset, not the decision-maker

Leasing teams know buildings. They know square footage, cap rates, and vacancy patterns. What they often don't know: who's actually making the decision to lease — and what's driving them.

"We had a list of about 100 companies in the East Bay," recalls Trent. "Good companies. Industrial tenants. But the data was useless for outreach."

"I knew the company names. I knew some of them had East Bay operations. But I had no idea who to call. The registered owner was usually an LLC. The decision-maker could be sitting in Ohio."

Trent Nakamura, Director of Leasing

The Boise situation was even murkier. The team had identified it as a growth market — but they had no systematic way to find companies that might expand there.

"Boise is interesting because it's not obvious," explains Rachel Kim, a senior associate on the team. "You can't just look at who's already there. You have to find companies in other markets that have the profile to expand."

Two pipelines, two strategies

Trent and Rachel designed a dual approach: East Bay for near-term opportunities, Boise for long-horizon positioning.

Project 1: East Bay — high-confidence, near-term

The East Bay project started with ~100 companies Trent had identified as potential industrial tenants. The goal: turn that list into lease-ready intelligence.

Step 1: Data hygiene. Clean company names, normalize domains, dedupe, establish a single legal name per account.

Step 2: East Bay presence verification. For each company, determine if they actually have East Bay operations — even if headquarters are elsewhere. Tag with city, address, and ZIP.

Step 3: Tenant classification. Label each as Industrial, Office, or Retail. Add sub-use where possible: Warehouse, Manufacturing, 3PL, R&D.

Step 4: Decision-maker identification. Find 1-2 people who influence location and lease decisions. Priority titles: VP/Director of Real Estate, Facilities, Operations, Logistics, Supply Chain, Plant Manager.

"The magic was in the verification step. We thought we knew who had East Bay presence. Turns out, 30% of our list didn't actually have operations there. We would have wasted a month chasing ghosts."

Rachel Kim, Senior Associate

Project 2: Boise — long-horizon, whitespace

Boise was intentionally positioned as the longest-horizon initiative. The goal: target accounts JLL hasn't marketed into before demand concentrates.

The team started with 74 companies as a seed list — industrial operators they knew had the profile to expand. Jeeva used that seed to find lookalikes.

Vertical-based targeting:

• Semiconductor supply chain
• National 3PL / e-commerce fulfillment
• Food & beverage distribution
• Mega retailers / e-tailers
• Construction materials / building supply

Expansion signal enrichment:

• Companies that closed deals with competitors (missed opportunities)
• Accounts already cross-referenced with JLL activity
• Geographic affinity signals for target cities: Boise, Reno, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, New Orleans

"We're not just looking for companies in Boise. We're looking for companies that should be in Boise — based on their footprint, their growth pattern, and where their peers are expanding."

— Rachel Kim, Senior Associate

The turning point

Three weeks into the East Bay project, Trent got a call back from a prospect he'd almost given up on.

"It was a food distribution company. We'd been trying to reach them for six months through their corporate office. Nothing."

The enriched data revealed that the VP of Operations — the actual decision-maker for West Coast facilities — was based in Sacramento, not at HQ. Trent reached out directly.

"He said, 'I've been waiting for someone to call about East Bay space. How did you find me?' I didn't tell him it took us six months and an AI to figure out he existed."

Trent Nakamura, Director of Leasing

That conversation led to a site tour within two weeks.

The outcome

JLL's leasing team now operates with two distinct pipelines, each with different velocity and risk profiles — but the same underlying discipline.

"We're not playing defense anymore," says Trent. "We're entering conversations before there's a mandate. That changes everything."

What's next

The team is expanding the Boise playbook to two additional markets: Reno and Oklahoma City.

"Same approach," Rachel explains. "Seed list, lookalike discovery, expansion signals. We've got a repeatable model now."

Trent is already planning the next phase for East Bay: tracking tenant lifecycle signals to predict when existing leases might come up for renewal.

"In leasing, advantage rarely comes from volume. It comes from entering the right accounts early, understanding why a company may need space next, and knowing who influences that decision before a broker mandate exists."

—Trent Nakamura, Director of Leasing