Jerome Moroux was eating gumbo inside Ton’s Downtown with his wife and brother when he mentioned how much he loved the building that houses it and The Jefferson next door.
His brother, commercial real estate agent Rex Moroux, then seized the moment: “Hey, is it something you’re interested in?”
He was, and last week he and his wife, Ashley, closed on a deal to purchase the historic downtown building at 500 Jefferson St. that recently housed the Jefferson Street Pub but for years was the downtown home of Guaranty Bank & Trust.
Sale price was $2.6 million, land records show. The seller was Seven Oaks Grand Coteau LLC, which is registered to Chris Granger with Maison Title.
“It’s a building I’ve loved since as long as I can remember,” said Moroux, an attorney with Broussard, David & Moroux in downtown Lafayette. “I think downtown is the heartbeat of the city, and the opportunity to own such an incredible piece of property downtown was too hard to pass up.”
The 15,000-square-foot building, which dates back to 1905 and still has the original bank vault, last changed hands three years ago when Granger purchased it and later brought in Ton’s in the old side bar area and The Jefferson, a wedding and event venue, for the main area.
The building, which also has five apartments upstairs, is the only one along Jefferson Street with Classical Revival elements and the only commercial building in Lafayette Parish that features a classically designed domed pavilion entrance, historic documents show.
In the late 1990s Dr. J. Lee Leonard and his wife, Jenny, planned to put in an upscale French restaurant after they bought it from the Times of Acadiana, archives show. It dates back to 1905 when it first opened to house the original Bank of Lafayette.
Moroux said he has no immediate plans for the building.
“It’s in great shape,” he said. “It’s had awesome caretakers. I just hope to continue the legacy they’ve had.”