Prime downtown Austin waterfront property goes up for sale as longtime ad agency moves on

The Sherry Matthews Group, an ad agency, has decided to sell the 7,500-square-foot office building it has been in for 20 years.

The agency said in an announcement that, as a result of lessons learned during the pandemic, employees would continue working from home while the company moves to a smaller space where groups of workers could gather at different times.

No price has been announced for the .6 -acre site at 200 S. Congress Ave., but it is valued at $3.78 million by the Travis County Central Appraisal District.

As firms delay returning to offices, the impact on the downtown office real estate market has yet to be seen.

The nearby Austin American-Statesman property is slated for development into a massive mixed-use project.

Agency owner Sherry Matthews made a statement in the announcement.

"We've had many team members who primarily worked from home for years ... But I had always thought that most of the Creative, Account Service, Media and other departments had to be in the office working together to provide stellar service to our clients. This pandemic has taught us just the opposite. The process has been seamless, and our staff is flourishing working remotely. They appreciate recovering additional personal time by not spending hours each day behind the wheel in traffic. They like the quiet time to reflect, write, and work without interruptions."