Thousands of CoStar Group employees gathered at the Allianz Open Air Theater on Wednesday night to culminate a day of grand opening celebrations for the company’s new campus on the James River.
The $460 million project, called Foundry Park, is anchored by a 21-story office building. Its distinctive video screen facing the river was officially lit amid fireworks and a performance by the band Carp.
The LED screen spans the top of the building and continues down the side and into the interior. It was programmed by Refik Anadol, an AI artist who contributed to the Las Vegas Sphere program.
“He pioneered a new art form. He paints with data and dreams with machines,” CoStar CEO Andy Florence said when introducing Anadolu.
Anadolu explained that the screen uses large-scale architectural models and draws from CoStar’s photo library to generate visuals inspired by buildings, neighborhoods, and the built environment.
“Millions of images pass through the building, and algorithms take that data and create a different picture each time,” Anadolu said, describing it as “futuristic science fiction.”
Drone video provided by CoStar Group
The building itself was designed by architect William Chilton, who also designed the new Dominion Energy office building downtown.
He credited Florence with being really responsible for the design and feel of the building.
“As architects, we had pencils and these ideas and inspiration came from Andy,” he said.
City and state government officials also attended the event, and their faces were visible on the building’s videoboard throughout the concert.
The ceremony comes at a volatile time for KoStar, whose stock price has fallen from $94 last August to $29 on Wednesday.
Activist investors have been pressuring Florence to end its investment in Homes.com, but during an investor conference call earlier this year, company officials stood by the long-term plan and touted a new AI search feature on the website that they called revolutionary.
On Wednesday, Florence spoke with a writer for Koster’s website and detailed his plans for the Richmond space.
The three-building complex at Foundry Park will house many of Kostar’s 2,440 employees in the Richmond area, with space for as many as 4,000 employees, he said, but added that Kostar believes “at some point we could employ approximately 8,000 people in the Richmond area.”
In the interview, Mr. Florence reiterated his belief in commercial real estate and in-person work, adding that bringing employees together under one roof instead of spreading them out across the city fosters collaboration and productivity.
He also said he envisions selling the building at some point and leasing it again as Richmond’s market continues to heat up.
“We don’t want to have real estate on our balance sheet for a long time, but we have time,” he told the website.
Writer Katie Burke added: “That means the company could wait until Richmond’s corporate identity continues to strengthen, valuations increase and the market attracts more investor interest. At that point, Florance said it would consider a sale-leaseback transaction that could fully recoup Kostar’s Foundry Park investment, given that it would involve a high-quality tenant occupying the entire trophy building.”
Both the city and state governments encouraged Koster’s construction. The state provided a $15 million grant, and the city will repay some of the company’s real estate taxes for the first 10 years.
The building closest to the river will also have a restaurant space open to the public, expected to open in the coming months.
Please contact Michael Phillips. mphillips@richmonder.org. CoStar is a sponsor of Richmonder but was not authorized to influence or review this article.
