The skyline in Richmond is reaching new heights.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch is reporting that Virginia’s capital city will get a new tallest building when CoStar Group, a commercial real estate analytics and research firm, expands its James River campus with a 26-story skyscraper.
The tower will rise on vacant land adjacent to a nine-story building the Washington-based company acquired last year, and will be part of a $460 million expansion of its corporate campus in Downtown Richmond on nearly 4 acres of vacant land purchased by CoStar in August 2020 for $20 million.
CoStar also plans to build a six-story building where its employees can use a fitness and wellness center, gather in conference facilities and an auditorium, and visit stores and restaurants.
Construction on the project, which includes 750,000 square feet of office and retail space and is expected to add 2,000 to 3,000 new jobs to the more than 1,000 CoStar has there now, is set to begin in 2023 and be ready for use in 2024.
The new tower will rise 510 feet into the air, blasting past the James Monroe state office tower, which is 29 stories and 449 feet tall. Dominion Energy has a new building nearby that is 20 stories and 417 feet tall.
Office space in both buildings will be used by the sales, marketing, software development, customer service and support teams.
CoStar CEO Andrew Florance, who was a lab partner with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos when both attended Princeton University, announced the plans on Friday, jokingly calling the new development “Little HQ2,” a nod to Bezos’ East Coast headquarters in Northern Virginia know as “HQ2.”
Features of the new tower, which is being designed by architect William Chilton of Pickard Chilton, include solar panel siding that will provide a “significant amount of energy” used by the LEED-certified building, according to the Times-Dispatch.
[Richmond Times-Dispatch] — Vince DiMiceli