New event venue to replace Jakes in Downtown Tyler

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Downtown Tyler is gaining a new event center in the historic building where an iconic restaurant resided for years.

“As I walked through and felt the floors creak under my feet, and felt the coolness of the brick as I walked down to the lower level below street grade, I just knew it had a lot more life to give and was going to explore what it looked like,” says Verde X CEO, S.E. Greene.

Greene purchased the historic 1800′s era building formerly known as Jakes on the Square in downtown Tyler after walking through it in January.

He didn’t feel like the former use as a restaurant fit the vibe of the building, and he felt like it was speaking to him saying it needed another life for the future.

“What I wanted to do with it was to provide it to everyone and the only way to do that was to make it a special event venue where anyone can lease the space, come here and have their event and make their own memories,” says Greene.

The event venue will be named One Eleven, and event director Eric Gatti says the building will be able to be used for many functions from weddings to business gatherings.

“It sounded like such a wonderful idea, because there’s no event venues down in downtown area and people around town need event centers,” says Gatti.

Greene says the mantra of One Eleven is to come together.

“Come together for your event, come together as family, come together as friends, come together as a community, and make memories,” says Greene.

He believes the new event venue will benefit downtown Tyler economically.

“It will bring people downtown that wouldn’t normally come downtown,” says Greene. “They might come downtown for special events and when they get here they will feel the presence, they will feel the building, and hopefully experience downtown and come back.”

Greene says they plan to be open by September. He says their website is currently under development where they will be releasing more information in the next several weeks.

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