VCU Arts and Innovation Building
Update
05/15/23
VCU Lands $18M for Arts & Innovation Center
CoStar Group has announced a historic partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to support the development of its planned Arts and Innovation Academic Building through an $18 million commitment. The project, tentatively to be named the CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation, subject to legal requirements and any necessary approval by the VCU Board of Visitors, the Commonwealth’s Department of General Services, or other state agencies, will consolidate VCU’s nationally recognized School of the Arts, ranked fourth in the country, and innovation programs under one roof for the first time. CoStar Group’s investment adds to the Company’s long-standing history of investment in educational opportunities in the city of Richmond and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
“VCU has proven to be a constant source of innovation and energy and CoStar Group has drawn heavily from its graduates and creative talent in recent years. As we continue to expand our business, our interests align seamlessly with VCU’s commitment to educational excellence,” said Andy Florance, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CoStar Group and a member of the VCU Board of Visitors since 2021. “I am confident that Dr. Rao’s leadership will continue to make a positive lasting impact and that he will be a thoughtful steward of the Center’s resources. This partnership will support VCU's world-class educational programs as well as contribute culturally to the city of Richmond and the Commonwealth of Virginia, which CoStar Group calls home.”
“CoStar Group’s strategic partnership - the second-largest corporate commitment in VCU history - will provide a launch pad for generations of VCU innovators, artists, makers and performers,” said Michael Rao, Ph.D., President of Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health. “We’re excited about our plan to name the CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation, which will recognize the tremendous alliance that has grown between VCU and CoStar Group. This collaboration will enrich our students, CoStar Group’s workforce, and the city of Richmond alike.”
The planned CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation is expected to be a 213,000-square-foot multidisciplinary complex on a one-acre site at the prominent intersection of Richmond’s Broad and Belvidere streets. Designed to be a resource not only for VCU but for the wider Richmond community, the planned design features flexible classroom spaces, interdisciplinary performance venues and makerspaces for rapidly growing partnerships across arts, business, humanities and sciences, medicine and engineering. Activities in the building are expected to range from opera to quantum computing, integrating the disciplines of engineering, cinema, theater, immersive media technology, gaming and the creation of new knowledge. Groundbreaking for the project is planned for the fall of 2023. The center is expected to open to the public in early 2027.
