CoStar leaves the burbs behind for downtown Nashville office

CoStar Group’s STR division is trading its suburban roots for a downtown Nashville address. 

The real estate analytics giant has secured a 34,000-square-foot lease at Boyle Investment Company’s Capitol View office building at 500 11th Avenue North, the Nashville Business Journal reported.

CoStar acquired STR, which provides analytics for the hospitality industry, for $450 million in 2019. STR has operated from 735 East Main Street in Hendersonville since 2002. 

The move to Capitol View places STR alongside notable tenants like the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, HealthStream and the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Jenna Muller, Kelly Sullivan and John Benziger represented CoStar in the lease negotiation. CoStar Group and landlord Boyle Investment declined to comment.

STR, founded in 1985 as Smith Travel Research, is a global leader in hotel industry benchmarking, aggregating data from over 65,000 hotels worldwide. It has regional offices in Nashville, London and Singapore.

The office move comes as Nashville’s market grapples with the ongoing impact of hybrid and remote work models, which have slowed large office transactions nationwide. However, the city’s metrics are looking pretty good compared to peers. Its vacancy rate was 22.7 percent in the second quarter, according to Avison Young. Demand is strong, with 186,000 square feet of space taken off the market last quarter, thanks to big leases from tech companies.

Oracle extended and expanded its lease by 30 percent to 121,000 square feet in the Radius building at 601 11th Avenue North last month. And TikTok leased 143,600 square feet in Music Row’s Moore Building at 827 19th Avenue South earlier this year. 

Law Firm Barnes & Thornburg also took a lease in the Moore Building last quarter, snagging 26,000 square feet. And Regions Bank leased 27,000 square feet in Roundabout Plaza, at 1600 Division Street.

Besides that, a mystery financial services firm is reportedly searching for 500,000 square feet of office space, signaling continued demand in the city’s commercial real estate sector.

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