The Oil Palace in Tyler Sold to New Owner for $4.7 Million

(Tyler, Texas) - The Oil Palace in Tyler is the most iconic entertainment venue in East Texas. Throughout its life on Highway 64 in Tyler, numerous big name artists and celebrities have entered its doors. There's even been some infamous events that have stuck with the venue through the years.

We learned in August that the venue was up for sale because the current owners were behind on a debt of $575,000. That debt was not repaid in time and the venue went up for auction. There is a new owner of the iconic venue but will we see improvements in aging building?

Sale of the Oil Palace in Tyler

The Oil Palace was up for auction on the steps of the Smith County Courthouse on Tuesday, October 7 (KLTV). So yes, you could have pulled some cash from under your mattress and made a bid to own the Oil Palace yourself. After several bids, the Oil Palace was sold to Newtek Small Business Finance, who are the current financers of the venue at a value of $3.94 million, for a price of $4,763,765.26.

We learned in August that the Oil Palace had closed and cancelled two upcoming events there, the Tyler Gun Show on September 13 and 14 and the CCC Sale, which will now be in the old JOANN Fabrics building in Tyler this November. This was because the current owners of the venue owed a debt of $575,000 to their lenders. The debt was not paid so the iconic entertainment venue went up for auction.

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Oil Palace History in Tyler

The Oil Palace in Tyler has a long history of bringing in some big time music acts to East Texas. George Strait, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Bret Michaels, Jason Aldean and so many more have played there. Ozzy Osbourne was booked to play a show in the 80s but resident backlash cancelled that show.

Past Glimpses of Tyler, Texas via Facebook

I recall going to circuses there along with monster truck shows and huge retail sales, too. One of my favorite shows was when ZZ Top performed in the late 2000s. I remember a couple of those "liquidation sales" in the 90s where I bought some clothes and electronics. There has been a lot of fun times at the Oil Palace for me.

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The Oil Palace has not had the best reputation over the last couple of decades. That's really sad for the rich history that building holds in East Texas. Here's to hoping the new owners make the necessary improvements to get the Oil Palace back to its glory days.