JLL Design Moves with Clarity and Confidence, Spending 50% Less Time on Permitting

Impact at a glance

• Almost half of JLL Design’s projects are approved with no comments
• Average time to approval: 8 weeks vs. industry average ~16 weeks
• 50% less time spent on admin work related to permitting

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Amy Sjursen, Vice President at JLL Design, leads the firm’s East Architecture team and manages retail and QSR programs across the U.S. With 20+ years of experience and leading nationwide retailers as clients, she has designed thousands of spaces and permitted in hundreds of jurisdictions.

Amy spent decades working with permit expediters, but the process was always too fragmented. She was managing dozens of expediters at a time, working with unclear timelines, and manually digging for files and updates. The level of upkeep was slowing her down, and creating a level of unpredictability that Amy didn’t want for business.

“The most important thing to deliver to our clients is accurate due diligence and live updates on status,” Amy explains. “If you give a client bad information twice, they stop trusting you.”

She knows, client trust is everything, and reputation is worth its weight in gold.

The value of transparency and accountability

For Amy, Pulley’s promise of automation and visibility through a centralized platform was an immediate draw:

“A lot of permit expediting firms will say things to you like, ‘We track all your projects, we give you updates, we give you reports.’ But having a platform where you can upload files and not email them, and I can see where any of my projects are at any point, and that made me think there's something here that I need to explore.”

Today, Pulley acts as the single source of truth for Amy’s team: drawings, submittals, approvals, and status updates all live in one place.

“We have team members who float between projects and across different accounts. Having everyone up to speed on Pulley’s platform and the ability to go into other projects has been so helpful,” she says.

A huge “aha” moment came when a team member was on vacation, and a file needed to be found. Amy quickly pulled up the file in Pulley, verified the correct version history, and had the answer instantly.

“We were all scrambling, like how are we going to see which revision number was uploaded? Being able to just jump in and see it immediately saved the day for us.”

Reducing time spent on permitting in half

Before Pulley, managing dozens of expeditors at a time was manual, and not predictable.

“We were making checklists to share with expediters on what still needed to be uploaded or what was outstanding. Now we just go in and check in real time. I'm not tracking down emails or checklists. My job has become much faster.”

Today, Amy uses Pulley’s portfolio dashboard to track the health of all her projects, and she “lives” in the Ball-in-Court and Tasks views to set up weekly priorities with her team.

With a dynamic, central source of truth, Amy estimates she spends 50% less time on permitting-related tasks than she has in the past.

But the value of this transparency isn’t only measured in hours saved. It’s also the confidence she can now bring to her clients because she has the right information at the right time.

“Our clients make leasing decisions based on permitting timelines. If we’re wrong, it can impact merchandising schedules and grand openings. Having Pulley means I can give them information in real time and know it’s right. That changes the conversation completely.”

Powerful outcomes through proactive service

The impact of Pulley’s blend of software and human expertise shows up clearly in JLL Design’s project outcomes.

Five-week early approval in Fairfax, VA

In Fairfax, Virginia, one of the toughest jurisdictions for many retailers, Amy’s team secured approvals five weeks early after just one round of comments. The factor that made all the difference? Pulley’s Permit Pro, Katie Gray.

“Katie marked up our drawings ahead of time and also sent us a list of typical comments she’d been seeing from that jurisdiction,” Amy recalls. “We were able to capture those comments as we completed our drawings. I think that’s why it only took one review and why the approval came so fast.”

Going above and beyond in Glendale, CA

For another client building in Glendale, Pulley pulled permits 11 days ahead of schedule. But the real impact came afterward, when the client’s GC faced confusion around linking trade permits to the general permit. Pulley Permit Pro Sabrina Hyman stepped in to coordinate directly with the city, even though Pulley’s scope on the project had ended.

“Pulley always goes above and beyond, even when their official scope is over,” Amy adds.

Projects like these highlight what makes the partnership different for Amy. Faster approvals come not just from the technology Pulley provides, but from proactive expertise and a willingness to step up when projects demand it.

Pulley is a strategic extension of Amy’s team

Pulley’s value to JLL Design extends beyond approval timelines and portfolio dashboards. The real difference is that Pulley acts as a true partner to Amy’s team and her clients.

Unlike traditional expediters, Pulley’s Permit Pros have architecture and engineering backgrounds and proactively review drawings and flag issues before submittal. Combined with rich data from the $10 billion plus in construction projects completed, Pulley offers a vast amount of insight into permitting across thousands of jurisdictions.

“Most expediters I’ve worked with just process paperwork. I’ve never had one mark up drawings before submittal,” she says. “Pulley does that, and it actually changes the quality of our submittals.”

She sees Pulley not just as a vendor or contractor that completes one part of the process, but a true partner.

“We have the type of relationship where I can just call, ask for help with questions, or strategize on a new account together. It’s never just someone disconnected from Architecture or the drawing process,” she explains.

“It's not just, hand over something or just do your part. Pulley really is an extension of our team.”

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