Andrew Florance

Andrew Florance
Founder, President & CEO
CoStar Group

Andrew C. Florance founded CoStar Group, Inc. in 1987, fundamentally changing the way commercial real estate professionals access, use and share information. Through CoStar, Mr. Florance pioneered the concept of commercial real estate firms outsourcing research functions to a third-party information provider, combining the operational efficiencies of a computer-based information system with the more thorough, standardized and higher quality property information produced by the industry’s first independent research organization.

Mr. Florance’s enduring commitment to innovation has been repeatedly recognized by Forbes magazine, which named CoStar among the 100 Most Innovative Growth Companies in the world, as well as one of Forbes Fast Tech 25 and one of Fortune magazine’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the company maintains offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia with a staff of more than 4,750 worldwide.

Mr. Florance has directed CoStar Group’s expansion from start-up, to its successful IPO in July 1998, and to its market-leading position today as a publicly traded enterprise (NASDAQ: CSGP) and the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. CoStar Group’s major holdings include:

  • CoStar, the largest provider of commercial real estate research, analytics and data, offering in-depth information on building attributes, historical lease and sale transactions, tenants, true owners and professionally captured images. Ninety-five percent of the top 1,000 brokerages turn to CoStar for client-ready reports, market analysis, news and information to make profitable decisions
  • LoopNet, including Showcase, CityFeet, and CoStar, the most heavily trafficked online commercial real estate marketplaces with more than 16 million average network monthly visits
  • The Apartments.com Network, the premier rental home resource for renters, property managers and owners with over 1 billion visits in 2020, including Apartments.com, ApartmentFinder, ApartmentHomeLiving, Apartamentos.com, ForRent.com, ForRentUniversity.com, After55.com, CorporateHousing.com, Westside Rentals and Off Campus Partners
  • BizBuySell, the Internet’s largest and most heavily trafficked business-for-sale marketplace
  • Lands of America, the largest rural real estate marketplace in the country
  • STR, the leading provider of premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for global hospitality sectors
  • Ten-X, the leading platform for conducting commercial real estate online auctions and negotiated bids
  • Homesnap, an industry-leading online and mobile software platform that provides user-friendly applications to optimize residential real estate agent workflow and reinforce the agent-client relationship.

Mr. Florance has co-authored a number of academic articles on commercial real estate economics and received Best Manuscript Prize Awards and the Scholar Practitioner Prize from the American Real Estate Society. He is active in education having served on six school boards over 28 years. He served on the board of several public company boards and six non-profit boards. Mr. Florance is currently the Chair of the Board of the Cathedral Chapter overseeing the Washington National Cathedral and sits on the board of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, the American Real Estate Society and Management Leadership for Tomorrow, a nonprofit that develops diverse leaders. Mr. Florance is a graduate of Princeton University with a B.A. in Economics and received an honorary doctorate from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2019.