CoStar To Quadruple Richmond Office Campus With 750K SF Development
Real estate tech giant CoStar Group is planning to expand its footprint in Richmond, Virginia, where it will eventually consolidate the operations of about 3,000 employees.
The move is a vote of confidence in the long-term future of office space by CoStar, which has stressed the importance of returning this year. The delta and then the omicron variants of the coronavirus have prompted companies to delay their return-to-office plans.
The new buildings are slated for development on a campus near the James River in Richmond and total 750K SF. The Washington, D.C.-based company is planning to centralize its tech, research, operations and sales functions in the buildings, which will be adjacent to its existing offices on Fifth Street. Altogether, the CoStar campus in Richmond will total about 1M SF.
The new buildings will include a 26-story LEED Platinum-targeted office tower and a six-story, mass timber multipurpose building as a hub for employee and community amenities, according to the company, which didn't specify when construction would start.
Plans for the campus include fitness and wellness amenities, conference space, an auditorium and 50K SF of green roof terraces, along with retail and restaurants. The campus will also sport more than 2.5 acres of outdoor green space.
CoStar CEO Andy Florance cited Virginia's business-friendly climate, under both the outgoing Democratic governor and the incoming Republican one, as a key consideration in the company's further commitment to Richmond.
“We look forward to bringing thousands of our colleagues from across the country and from around the world to Richmond for training, advanced research and collaborative product development,” Florance said in a statement.
CoStar has been keen to see its employees return to the office this year. As of midsummer, ahead of the delta variant, 85% of its employees had returned, both to its Richmond office and to D.C.
"We evacuated our offices last March because of a global pandemic, not because of an HR innovation that discovered that remote work was more productive," Florance told the Washington Business Journal.
CORRECTION, DEC. 17, 12:55 P.M. ET: A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to the Richmond, Virginia, development as CoStar’s headquarters. The story has been updated.
