CoStar Expands Retail Reach

BETHESDA, MD-Real estate information technology provider CoStar has expanded its retail offerings with the acquisition of NRB, which has a database of information on 40,500 shopping centers totaling 4.8 billion sf. Locally based CoStar acquired NRB from San Diego-based marketing information company Claritas for about $4.1 million.

Retailers such as Best Buy, Blockbuster and Target are among the customers that use NRB’s data, said Andrew C. Florance, president and CEO of CoStar. NRB’s products include the Shopping Center Directory and analytic reports.

As part of the deal, CoStar will be able to use demographic information supplied by Claritas via a licensing agreement between the two companies. “With this deal, we are accessing the leading demographic data in the retail sector and making it available to the majority of our customers,” Florance says.