Refurbished Tower Downtown Now A Haven For Creative Firms
June 27, 2008
Austin Business Journal
by Sandra Zaragoza, ABJ Staff
It may be a far cry from Madison Avenue, but one can't help but notice that the Capitol Tower at 206 E. Ninth St. is becoming a mini creative hub of its own with some big names anchoring the building.
One attention-grabbing tenant is Enfatico, a new communications agency formed by WPP Group and Dell Inc. The nascent agency is making a splash in national advertising circles because it's handling Dell's three-year, $4.5 billion account. When fully staffed, Enfatico is expected to have 200 employees in Austin. Enfatico is also sharing one of its four floors in the tower with sister agency Schematic, a WPP-owned interactive agency that's also new to Austin.
Austin-based LatinWorks has been growing into its new office with a clutch of high-powered clients, including Hyundai and Shell. The growing Hispanic advertising agency, now up to 92 employees, is part of Omnicom's network of agencies.
Buck Krawczyk, vice president of marketing of Austin-based Powered Inc., says that his company didn't realize that it would be neighbors with some of the town's major creative players. "When we first moved in here, we didn't know that LatinWorks was on the floor below us or that [Enfatico] would follow after that," says Krawczyk. "It's a neat circumstance. What better to challenge us than the presence of other creative types."
Jeff Mills of Austin-based gaming company Red Fly Studio adds that the tower doesn't have the stodgy atmosphere of a typical office building. "Capitol Tower definitely has a young, fresh vibe," Mills says. "We've made a few connections with our fellow building mates and look forward to getting to know more."
The building's owner, PRS Equities Limited of Birmingham, Michigan, didn't plan on filling the building with a clutch of creative agencies, says Matt Frizzell, senior associate with Stream Realty, but it's worked out well for the colorful tenants, which have had the freedom to custom build their offices.
"I think it was really the views of downtown that landed a company like LatinWorks and then it was just one creative company after another," Frizzell says.
