In Greek mythology, Aquila is Zeus’ loyal servant—a majestic eagle renowned for his sight. Nothing escapes Aquila’s vision. And that’s why we chose him as our company’s namesake and inspiration: Like Aquila, we see everything happening in our corner of the world.

Our Origin Story


AQUILA is a full-service commercial real estate firm serving owners, tenants, developers, and commercial real estate investors in the Austin metro area.

But like most great tales, AQUILA’s story begins with a problem.

In 2007, Austin’s commercial real estate market was being dominated by behemoth national firms that didn’t understand the city. More focused on their bottom lines than their clients, these companies were leaving countless deals on the table.

Finally, six of Austin’s finest brokers—each with a great job at a national firm, each frustrated with the bureaucracies they faced every day—turned to each other and said: “We can do better.”

And so, on a napkin over lunch at El Arroyo restaurant, AQUILA was born:

Bart Matheney, one of those six founders, recalls how things used to work in Austin real estate:

At a former company, I wanted to create a database to better understand the market—and to directly benefit the owners and properties we represented. So I proposed we hire interns—University of Texas students—who would “walk” the properties. Visit every site. Take photos. Check occupancy. Then report back to me.

Seems like an obvious, easy thing to do, right?

After months of trying to navigate the bureaucracy, I gave up. There would be no interns for us.

My company was so huge, so siloed, that the simple act of hiring an intern to go look at properties was a months-long, paperwork-filled chore. I wonder sometimes how many great opportunities we lost by being slow to act.”

So Bart and our five other co-founders joined forces to form AQUILA—a new kind of real estate company that would be agile, hard-working, and overwhelmingly Austin.

While AQUILA was founded as a brokerage, our quick success led to new opportunities to expand our services.

Today, AQUILA is Austin’s premier full-service commercial real estate firm—offering tenant representation, property management, project leasing, project management, and more.

AQUILA's Founding Partners: Jay Lamy, Mike Murphy, Bart Matheney, Chris Perry and Chad Barrett

AQUILA’s Founding Partners: Jay Lamy, Mike Murphy, Bart Matheney, Chris Perry, and Chad Barrett