D.C.-based commercial real estate analytics company CoStar Group has committed $18 million to the construction of a new Center for Arts and Innovation Academic Building for Virginia Commonwealth University.
The building would be named the CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation, if approved by the school.
The planned 213,000-square-foot building will be built on a one-acre site at the intersection of Richmond’s Broad and Belvidere Streets. The building will have flexible classroom spaces and performance venues. It is expected to be home to opera, quantum computing, integrating studies in engineering, cinema, theater, immersive media technology, gaming and more.
Groundbreaking for the project, now an estimated $253 million undertaking, is planned for this fall, with expected completion in early 2027. The state is funding $232.4 million of the complex’s cost.
The project still needs approvals by the school’s Board of Visitors, and other state agencies. CoStar chief executive Andy Florance has been a member of the VCU Board of Visitors since 2021.
VCU’s School of the Arts is nationally ranked fourth among public and private schools across the country, according to the school.
CoStar has a large presence in Richmond. It opened a global operations headquarters there in 2016, where it employs more than 1,500 people. It also recently broke ground on a new Richmond campus that will more than double the company’s workforce in the city.
