BETHESDA, Md., Nov. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CoStar Group, Inc. , the number one provider of information services to the commercial real estate industry, today announced that Hibbett Sports, one of America's fastest growing sporting goods chains with over 600 locations, has signed a national agreement for access to CoStar Property Professional(R), a powerful online solution whose retail component is designed to reduce the time, expense and risk of retail real estate decisions. Hibbett Sports is the latest in a growing number of major U.S. retailers -- from Quiznos, Sbarro and Spencer Gifts to Mattress Discounters and DSW -- to choose Property Professional as a resource for their real estate expansion, lease renewals and competitive intelligence.
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"We're pleased to add Hibbett Sports to CoStar's growing customer base of national retailers who are choosing the powerful retail dimension of our flagship product as a decision-support tool for their real estate strategies," said CoStar President and CEO Andrew C. Florance. "Our researched and verified retail property database, coupled with breakthrough online search technology, provides users with unprecedented intelligence on retail properties, competitors and market conditions nationwide. Since launching Property Professional's retail dimension in May 2006, we have signed approximately 100 new license agreements specifically for access to the powerful retail functionality of our service."
CoStar maintains the largest inventory of fully researched commercial real estate properties, for-lease and for-sale availability and comparable property sales in the United States. Property Professional subscribers currently have access to more than 1.8 million verified and continuously updated commercial properties of all classes and types, including 450,000 retail properties. They also have unprecedented information on approximately 1 million store locations, including those of America's top 4,700 retailers.
CoStar plans to grow its database to more than 4 million commercial properties, including retail. As part of this national research expansion, CoStar has deployed 141 high-tech field research vehicles in 43 states and has approximately 800 professional researchers photographing, inspecting and verifying hundreds of details on existing or newly added commercial properties in the company's database.
Retail brokers are also tapping CoStar Property Professional for its depth and breadth of retail data. With the retail component of Property Professional, brokers are able to do retail deals more efficiently and earn more commissions by spending significantly less time and effort manually researching available retail properties and more time closing deals. Among the retail brokerages that have signed license agreements for Property Professional since May 2006 are The Hadler Companies, Cypress Retail Group, Sage Retail Group, Retail One, RBI Retail Brokers, and Beale Group & Associates.
Retailers who are buying properties or expanding through development also rely on CoStar COMPS Professional(R) to evaluate property values, research property comparables, identify market trends and expedite the appraisal process. 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 more than 1.2 million sales records valued at over $2 trillion. Last week the company unveiled a major upgrade of COMPS Professional with 100 new features and even more verified sales records. Among the largest retailers using COMPS are Walgreens, 7- Eleven, Verizon, McDonald's and BP America.
About CoStar Group, Inc.
CoStar Group, Inc. 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, London 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.
Note to Editors: A high-resolution, four-color image depicting Hibbett Sports locations throughout the United States is available for download at http://www.costar.com/webimages/PressRelease/USMap_HibbettSports.jpg (3.2 mb).
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 Property Professional will support retailers in opening more stores faster, at less cost with greater success; that the retail component of CoStar Property Professional will reduce the time, expense and risk of making retail real estate decisions; that Property Professional will provide users with unprecedented intelligence on retail properties, competitors and market conditions nationwide; that Property Professional subscribers have unprecedented information on approximately 1 million store locations, including those of America's top 4,700 retailers; that CoStar will be able to successfully grow its database to more than 4 million commercial properties, including retail; that brokers will be able to use the retail component of Property Professional to do retail deals more efficiently and to earn more commissions; that by using Property Professional brokers will be able to spend significantly less time and effort manually researching available retail properties and more time closing deals; and that retailers who are buying properties or expanding through development will be able to rely on CoStar COMPS Professional to evaluate property values, research property comparables, identify market trends and expedite the appraisal process. All forward- looking statements are based on information available to CoStar on the date hereof, and CoStar assumes no obligation to update such statements.
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