WASHINGTON, DC—For a relatively small office transaction in the District, the $26.8 million Georgetown Plaza trade is getting a lot of airtime. Yesterday we reported on the private equity component of the deal—a $24.5 million senior mortgage loan custom structured by Square Mile Capital Management LLC and secured by Cushman and Wakefield.

This morning Realty Mogul and JOSS report that the company used the crowdfunding platform to help finance the transaction as well. In a prepared statement Larry Botel, the founding partner of JOSS, called the process "an efficient way for us to raise equity capital."

For Realty Mogul, which has been very active in its home state of California, the deal represents the company's push into East Coast markets. This transaction was its first in the District, CEO Jilliene Helman tells GlobeSt.com.

"We have done projects now in 18 states," she says. The investor response for the DC project, she adds, "exceeded our expectations. There was a lot of interest in being in such a solid market."

Helman cannot discuss active deals or get into the company's pipeline to any great degree but she does say she expects more transactions in the DC area.

In many ways Fundrise, a competing crowdfuning platform for real estate with local roots, has primed the pump, but the two platforms are dissimilar enough that Helman believes there is ample room for both.

Fundrise investors' tend to be smaller, drawn to the $100 minimum, she says, "while our investors are accredited high-net worth individuals."