Moocho Burrito in downtown Tyler Monday, December 7, 2020. (Les Hassell/News-Journal Photo)

Ice cream can bring a smile to anyone’s face. So can coffee. And wine. Why not throw in a good steak or great Mexican food?

As Andy Bergfeld walked out of the Plaza Tower and into the downtown square in Tyler just 12 months ago, he turned toward his development and all of those things brought a smile.

“That brought a smile to my face pre-Covid … hundreds of people a day on our sidewalks and in our True Vine brew pub, Café 1948 and Andy’s Custard, Berfield said. “I have not seen downtown this vibrant in my lifetime, and it’s just getting started. We have the opening of a five-star restaurant, Prime 102, Peoples’ Petroleum Building, and I have multiple prospects I am working with right now who want to locate downtown.”

It’s no secret Tyler is expanding to the South. It happens in every city, town and village. Big box chains open, growth follows, sidewalks roll up.

But not in Tyler.

“Downtown has really flourished for several reasons, but overall its due to a sense of community that has developed over the last two decades,” Bergfield said. “People need interaction with other people. They want to be part of a place where people know their name and share in their joy for life. Downtown Tyler has become that place. We have tried to create an atmosphere where it is fun for people to come downtown.”

It starts with taking away the traditional concept of office buildings, a vision Garnett Brookshire and Bergfeld have had since their grandparents had downtown businesses.

Andy’s great-great grandfather, Rudolph Bergfeld who had Bergfeld Loan And Trust on the southeast corner of the square, would get a visit each week from Garnett’s great grandparents, Wood T. and Louise Brookshire. They would borrow the adding machine to tally up all the Brookshire Grocery Co. receipts.

From those meetings, a bond was formed to strengthen downtown Tyler while branching out and bringing more business, development and employment opportunities to not just Tyler and Smith County, but East Texas and beyond.

Those same decisions are being made today by Garnett’s father, Tim Brookshire along with Andy Bergfeld in the Plaza Tower.

“It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come since 1928,” Garnett added. “It’s good to see downtown is loved again. There is hope, there is vision and actual revitalization going on.”

Bergfeld says of the Plaza Tower, “The longtime standard for high rise office buildings is that they are serious and cold — a place where you get in your car and drive to every morning, have very little interaction with the public until you get in your car to drive somewhere for lunch and then come back to the office after lunch until you sit in traffic to go home at 5 o’clock. Life’s too short to go through that monotony every day.”

That vision has created a “Cheers” atmosphere.

“Tyler is a small enough community where we know every tenant by name. That makes it fun, too,” Garnett Brookshire said. “The core of our business is office leasing. So you have options when you come to Tyler. You can go south, and that’s a lot of folks’ preference. But people also like being downtown, able to network. They can get coffee, see their friends, make new friends and actually network. They are doing more business downtown than in an office on their own island outside of downtown.”

it’s not uncommon to see events and themed days going on in a game room for the tenants. And it comes back to ice cream.

“When we give out ice cream, it’s a great chance for me to talk to everyone as a landlord. Do they need anything like lights, or trash removal, it gives us an advantage to show appreciation to our customers, our tenants,” Brookshire said.

There are two other factors for the strong downtown. A commitment from one business owner the past 30 years and looking ahead decades at a time.

“Rick Eltife (owner of Rick’s on the Square) was first in the late 90’s to say ‘hey, there is value downtown, people will come downtown.’ And he proved to everyone it can be done down here,” Garnett Brookshire said. “He should be credited with a lot down here. Is it easy downtown? No. It takes grit, determination and passion and it can be done. That’s what we want to prove.”

Garnett adds, “This isn’t a flip deal for us, make a few bucks and move on to another town. These are long-term investments into the community. There is also sentimental attachment as well.”

Tim Brookshire made sure of this.

“My dad drove us, he said we had to be downtown. He is the true visionary behind our family-run enterprise. He taught me to look decades into the future, not months or years.”

Bergfeld’s family helped instill his passion and today his vision is to continue working with the other anchors of downtown to help Plaza Tower grow.

“We love all of Tyler, but our passion is downtown. It’s the heart of our city, and for that matter, East Texas. It is very important to me to help make it a place we can all be proud of” Bergfeld said. “Our office market drives our economy downtown right now. We don’t have enough tourism income yet to sustain our retail by itself, so I am especially grateful for the office tenants that have been here for decades like KLTV, the Tyler Morning Telegraph, the Potter Law Firm, the Scammahorn Law Firm and many of our oil and gas tenants at People’s Petroleum Building.

“Without them staying downtown when everything else flew south, we wouldn’t have had the foundation to do what we are doing now. I am also grateful for some of the new companies who have moved their operations downtown like Estes-Mcclure and Gator Waders who, like Findlay Craft Law Firm, migrated back to Downtown after being in south Tyler for many years,” he added.

Garnett Brooskhire said if the square is redeveloped to a recreational space, it will be a “game changer” for East Texas.

“Thanks to Amber Rojas-Varona (Main Street Director for the City of Tyler) and the Visit City of Tyler Visitor Center folks, there are more events, arts, parades, car shows, the Red Dirt festival. You are seeing a rapid increase in events downtown,” Garnett Brookshire said. “If they can create a big recreational space in the square, that’s going to blow it out of the water, you will have people lining up to do events every weekend. People will know there are events. it will be a dining and entertainment mecca for East Texas. You can’t replicate that anywhere else. A lot of places are all retail, you can’t replicate that same downtown feel. It’s a unique and major draw.”

It’s where history comes alive.

“My family got its start in Texas, in the late 1870’s, right here on the square in Tyler. Absolutely that’s something that stokes my passion for downtown redevelopment. We owned a saloon, bank, hotel and hardware store right here on these brick streets so I feel like there’s a little of it in my DNA<” Andy Bergfeld said. “Much of our downtown was torn down in the name of “progress”, but there is still a beautiful core to work with and occasionally you find a hidden gym like the old Union Bus Station which we plan to convert into overnight lodging in 2021-22.

“Working with the Brookshire’s has been a tremendous blessing. Their integrity is second to none, which is probably why our families have been in business with each other for the last 100 years. We share common core values, but each of us (Tim, Garnett and I) bring a little something different to the table, which I think benefits us as a whole,” Bergfeld continued. “We also have an amazing team working with us down here that shares our love for God and love for others. It’s fun going to work every day and being a part of the downtown community.”