Thousands of CoStar Group employees gathered at the Allianz Amphitheater on Wednesday night, the culmination of a day of grand-opening festivities for the company's new campus along the James River.

Dubbed Foundry Park, the $460 million project is anchored by a 21-story office building. Its distinctive video screen facing the river was officially turned on amid fireworks and a performance from the band Caamp.

The LED screen spans the top of the building, runs down the side and continues indoors. It was programmed by Refik Anadol, an AI artist who helped program the Las Vegas Sphere.

"He's pioneered a new art form. He paints with data and dreams with machines," CoStar CEO Andy Florance said in introducing Anadol.

Anadol explained that the screen uses a Large Architecture Model to draw from CoStar's library of photos to generate visuals inspired by buildings, neighborhoods and the built environment.

"Millions of images go through the building, and the algorithm will take that data and make a different painting every time," Anadol said, describing it as "futuristic science fiction."

The building itself was designed by architect William Chilton, who also designed the new Dominion Energy office building downtown.

He credited Florance with being hands-on in the design and feel of the building.

"As architects, we held the pencil, but these ideas and this inspiration was Andy," he said.

A group of city and state government dignitaries were also on hand for the event, and had their faces shown on the building's video board throughout the concert.

The ceremony came at a precarious time for CoStar, which has seen its stock price fall from $94 last August to $29 on Wednesday.

Activist investors have pressured Florance to drop the company's investment in Homes.com, though on an investor call earlier this year, company officials stood by their long-term plans and touted a new AI search feature on the website that they dubbed transformative.

On Wednesday, Florance spoke with a writer from the CoStar website, detailing his plans for the Richmond space.

The three-building complex at Foundry Park will house many of CoStar's 2,440 Richmond-area employees, and he said there is room for as many as 4,000, though he added he thinks CoStar "could one day employ about 8,000 people in the Richmond area."

In the interview, Florance reiterated his belief in commercial real estate and in-person work, adding that bringing his employees under one roof, instead of having them spread across the city, will promote collaboration and productivity.

He also said he envisions someday selling the building and leasing it back as the Richmond market continues to heat up.

“We don’t want to keep real estate on our balance sheet for the long term, but we also have the luxury of time,” he told the website.

Writer Katie Burke added: "That means the company can wait while Richmond’s corporate identity continues to strengthen, valuations climb and the market attracts more investor interest. At that point, Florance said the company would consider a sale-leaseback deal that — considering it would involve a high-credit tenant occupying the entirety of a trophy building — would more than make back CoStar’s investment on Foundry Park."

The city and state governments both incentivized CoStar's construction. The state provided a $15 million grant, while the city will return some of the company's real estate taxes during the first decade.

The building closest to the river will also have restaurant space that is open to the public, which will open in the coming months.

Contact Michael Phillips at mphillips@richmonder.org. CoStar is a Richmonder sponsor but was not allowed to influence or review this story.