Event crews set up the reception area for the Eubanks-Haase wedding in the La Gala ballroom on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020. La Gala owner Jake Simic, who was renting the wedding and event venue at 601 State St. in Bowling Green from the district since 2013, recently purchased the 20,000-square-foot property from the Downtown Redevelopment Authority for $1.2 million. (Grace Ramey/photo@bgdailynews.com)

La Gala, the wedding and event venue at 601 State St. in Bowling Green, has been the site of many lively celebrations in the past before being silenced by the coronavirus pandemic’s social distancing restrictions for the past four months.

That’s about to change, although those celebrations are certain to be a bit more subdued.

La Gala owner Jake Simic spent his downtime sprucing up the venue and recently purchased the 20,000-square-foot property from the Downtown Redevelopment Authority for $1.2 million.

Now he’s slowly rescheduling events that were canceled and planning for operating the venue at the state-mandated 50 percent of capacity.

“We canceled at least 20 events,” Simic said. “Now we’re able to do some events again. We’re getting more phone calls every day from people wanting to reschedule.”

Simic, who owned the Brickyard Cafe on Chestnut Street from 1998 through 2016, said the size of the La Gala building will allow him to have events with 150 to 200 people in attendance.

“Venues don’t have the same restrictions as restaurants,” Simic said. “You can host events at 50 percent of capacity, and people must wear masks and be socially distanced.”

Simic said La Gala, which is adjacent to Circus Square Park, already held one event July 25 and has a couple more scheduled in August.

His ownership of the building will make little difference in its operation, Simic said.

“I’m not making any major changes yet,” he said. “The big difference is that I own it instead of leasing it. We’ll make some cosmetic changes on the inside and try to improve the building a little bit.”

Simic said the past four months have been tough for all event venues, but he said “about 80 percent” of La Gala’s canceled events have been rescheduled for next year.

“It’s a crazy time,” he said. “You don’t know what’s going to be happening from one week to the next. But we’ll survive.”