A man spray paints over the Friendly’s sign at the former Jamestown location in Brooklyn Square. Over the weekend, 23 Friendly’s restaurants closed its doors due to “dramatic changes in the areas,” the company said. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

It might have a new name, but a similar type of family-style restaurant will be reopening in Brooklyn Square.

On Monday, Vince DeJoy III announced he will be partnering with Marcy Parenti, former Friendly’s general manager, to reopen the former Friendly’s Restaurant as Jimmy’s Family Restaurant, located at 10 S. Main St.

DeJoy said he was just as shocked as many city residents when the former Friendly’s Restaurant closed April 8. He said as the development director for the city he contacted the building’s owner Amfil, a real estate investment group out of New York City. He added that he meet with Amfil officials at Tim Horton’s across the street from the restaurant on Good Friday about what the developers wanted to reopen the restaurant.

However, DeJoy said Amfil officials told him there had been little interest to reopen another franchise restaurant at the location.

So around Memorial Day weekend, DeJoy said he reached out to Parenti to see if she thought an independent restaurant would be successful in the former Friendly’s location. When Parenti said “yes” because of the great staff and regular customers, DeJoy went to work creating a business plan to reopen the restaurant.

DeJoy said the name of the restaurant came from his sister, who had suggested “Jimmytown,” but he thought that was too long and shortened it to Jimmy’s Family Restaurant. He said his two grandfathers, who were both named Vincent also went by Jimmy.

“It just seemed to work. It just seemed right,” he said.

With Parenti running the new restaurant, DeJoy said he will be handling the finance side of the operation. He said it will cost around $150,000 to reopen the restaurant. He applied and received a $55,000 Chautauqua Revolving Loan Fund from the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency. He added the rest of the financing to open the restaurant will be his personal funds from him and his family. DeJoy said he will not be applying or accepting any loans or grants from the city of Jamestown. He will be leasing the building from Amfil.