300 MSAs
BETHESDA, Md., Jan. 25 /-/ -- CoStar Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSGP), the number one provider of information services to the commercial real estate industry, today announced that Chick-fil-A, Dippin' Dots, United Rentals and a Fortune 200 company that requested anonymity have all signed national license agreements for access to CoStar Property Professional(R). They are the latest in a growing "Who's Who" of subscribers that are leveraging Property Professional as a breakthrough real estate intelligence tool for selecting new sites, researching markets and analyzing their competition with remarkable speed, precision and simplicity.
Chick-fil-A is one of the largest privately held restaurant chains and is the second largest quick-service chicken restaurant. The company has over 1,250 restaurants in 37 states and Washington, D.C.
Dippin' Dots is one of the fastest growing franchises in the United States. Its innovative ice cream is sold in 250 retail locations and at thousands of entertainment venues and special events nationwide.
United Rentals is one of the largest equipment rental companies in the world, with a network of more than 760 rental locations in 48 states, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico.
"More leading retailers are discovering every day that CoStar is the only commercial information provider with the scale, experience and infrastructure to meet their vast needs for retail real estate intelligence," said CoStar President and CEO Andrew C. Florance. "The powerful retail component of Property Professional helps users compress weeks of real estate research time into minutes and easily pinpoint thousands of sites that fit their 'A' profile for new locations. The result is accurate, quick and easy site selection decisions at less cost -- a significant competitive advantage in a fast-moving market."
As the industry's largest commercial real estate research organization, CoStar gathers and verifies for-sale and for-lease listings across all commercial property types -- office, industrial, retail, land, mixed-use, hospitality and multifamily -- throughout the United States and United Kingdom. CoStar currently researches and verifies commercial properties in more than 300 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across the U.S.
Property Professional subscribers have access to more than 2 million verified and continuously updated commercial properties of all classes and types, including more than 531,000 general retail, shopping center, sports and entertainment and commercial land properties. They also have unprecedented information on approximately 1 million store locations, including those of America's top 5,100 retailers.
CoStar plans to grow its database to more than 4 million commercial properties, including retail. As part of this research expansion, CoStar has deployed 155 high-tech field research vehicles in 43 states and the United Kingdom as well as over 1,000 professional researchers photographing, inspecting and verifying hundreds of details on existing or newly added commercial properties in the company's database.
Top retail brokers across the United States are also using this powerful tool to broaden their range of client services, to do retail deals more efficiently and to earn more commissions. Because Property Professional provides fast, comprehensive details on retail space availabilities locally, regionally and nationwide in a user-friendly online platform, brokers are able to spend considerably less time and effort manually researching available retail properties and more time closing deals for a wider array of clients. Major brokerages using the retail component of Property Professional include CB Richard Ellis, Colliers International, Grubb & Ellis, The Staubach Company and Transwestern.
Retailers who are buying properties or expanding through development also rely on CoStar COMPS Professional(R) for their commercial real estate intelligence. COMPS Professional is America's leading source of researched and verified sales comparables of office, hotel, retail, industrial and multifamily properties as well as land, with over 1 million sales records valued at over $2 trillion. In November 2006, the company unveiled a major upgrade of COMPS Professional with 100 new features. Among the largest retailers using COMPS are Walgreens, 7-Eleven, Target, Yum Brands and Circle K Stores.
About CoStar Group, Inc.
CoStar Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSGP) is the number one provider of information services to commercial real estate professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom. CoStar's suite of services offers customers access via the Internet to the most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information on 66 U.S. markets and the United Kingdom. Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, the company has approximately 1,300 employees throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, including the largest professional research organization in the industry.
This news release includes "forward-looking statements" including, without limitation, statements regarding CoStar's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. More information about potential factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward- looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated in CoStar's filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including CoStar's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005 and CoStar's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, under the heading "Risk Factors." In addition to these statements, there can be no assurance that by using CoStar Property Professional users will be able to compress weeks of real estate research time into minutes, easily pinpoint the right properties and gather insight on competitors and reduce research costs and time; that CoStar will be able to successfully grow its database to more than 4 million commercial properties, including retail; that retail owners may use Property Professional to broaden their range of client services, do retail deals more efficiently, earn more commissions and spend considerably less time and effort manually researching available retail properties and more time closing deals for a wider array of clients; and that retailers will continue to rely on Property Professional and COMPS Professional for their real estate intelligence. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar on the date hereof, and CoStar assumes no obligation to update such statements.
