• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 28, 2012

St. Petersburg, FL-based consumer research and marketing giant Catalina is dramatically expanding its presence in Boston. The company, whose Boston team has been developing personalized digital media marketing technologies for retailers, such as New England’s Stop & Shop grocery chain, announced that it will triple the size of its team.

The team, which is headquartered at 24 Farnsworth Street in Boston’s burgeoning Innovation District, has been expanding dramatically since acquiring Modiv Media earlier this year.

The team is responsible for developing in-store mobile marketing solutions, such as the SCAN IT! Mobile application it developed for Stop & Shop.

Catalina said it moved to the Innovation District explicitly to “attract new, innovative talent.”

The expansion of Catalina’s Boston organization follows a real estate deal in August, giving it a seven-year lease on two floors comprising 75,000 square feet of 24 Farnsworth Street in South Boston.

The new facilities will officially open in November, and utilize an “open-concept” floor plan, including an obligatory coffee bar and outdoor roof deck, though Catalina’s announcement made no mention of a ping pong table or micro-brewing facility.

In terms of the timeline for its staff expansion, Catalina said it nearly “doubled” the size of its mobile team during the third quarter and would expand it another 33% by the end of the year.