Claritas Inc., which moved to San Diego from Arlington, VA., in 1999, announced Monday it has acquired the National Research Bureau, a major supplier of demographic information to retail developers, owners, real estate agents and brokers and other retail professionals for 46 years.

Claritas President and CEO Robert Nascenzi said the agreement calls for the Chicago-based bureau, which operates The Shopping Center Database, to continue operating under its name.

Nascenzi says bureau president Nancy Veatch will keep her job. Veatch says the bureau has delivered shopping center data to Claritas clients for nine years.

"It's a logical next step for NRB to become a more integral part of the Claritas organization," she says. "It looks to be a win-win situation for us all."

Both the bureau and Claritas represent major clients based in San Diego, including Petco, Mailbox Etc. and Union Tribune Publishing. Notable real estate industry clients with regional offices in San Diego include CB Richard Ellis, Trizec Properties Inc., formerly TrizecHahn Corp., and Pan Pacific Retail Properties.

As for data on San Diego shopping centers, The Shopping Center Database, for example, shows that there are 565 centers with a total gross leasable area of 60.4 million sf. The database ranks Fashion Valley as the largest center in San Diego at 1.7 million sf.

The database contains data on more than 39,000 shopping centers, 70,000 contacts and 500,000 tenants within shopping centers.