Avison Young will dip its toe into the metaverse, serving as the exclusive leasing agent for metaverse investor and developer Everyrealm.

Avison Young's agreement adds to a small but growing list of CRE firms choosing to operate in the digital landscape of the metaverse, including Jamestown and CBRE. Avison Young will serve as the leasing agent for the company’s MetaMall metaverse retail platform.

“Major Fortune 500 brands and companies across the retail, fashion, finance, entertainment and gaming industries are occupying space in the metaverse at record numbers and we expect this trend to continue as companies begin to formulate best use cases for their business in [the] metaverse,” Avison Young Director of the Technology Practice Group Peter Johnson said in a press release. “This is an innovative way for companies to reach a new customer base or target demographic that they may not have been exposed to with their existing, more conventional forms of e-commerce or digital advertising.”

Both Johnson and Leah Zafra, an Avison Young associate, will represent ownership for Everyrealm's digital retail space, in addition to representing its brick-and-mortar interests in the real world, including its location in New York City, located at 335 Madison Ave.

The MetaMall location is a 364K SF digital retail space, which features a game floor, two conference floors, a lobby and three floors available for lease, which consists of 121K SF of customizable digital area.

“Avison Young is one of the few traditional commercial brokerage firms that understands metaverse real estate, and so it was a natural decision for us to work with them in leasing out the retail stores in our mall in Decentraland,” Everyrealm CEO Janine Yorio said in a press release.

A Bisnow survey conducted earlier this year indicated that despite concerns about the platform’s CRE viability, with some suggesting the platform is “a step toward dystopia,” big-name CRE companies are increasingly willing to throw their hats into the digital ring.