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The site of Belladoggie, the doggie day care and boarding company, will be converted into apartment buildings with one small retail space on the ground floor, according to records filed with the city.
The building on 821 Washington Avenue was sold for about $2.6 million last March, according to the Orleans Parish Assessor’s Office, to a company called 821 Washington Avenue LLC.
City records show that Rozas Ward Architects received a permit last month put residential units into the building, which housed a school before it was converted into a kennel and dog boarding business. The application calls for 30 units, but on Friday morning Myles Martin, an architect with the firm, said the details for layout were still being hashed out.
Former plans called for a pool, records show, among other amenities.
“We’re looking at options,” Martin said Friday.
Martin also said the exterior of the building would remain the same, as the company is applying for historic tax credits.
He expressed hope that construction would start this year, and that once finished, the new development would “breathe some life” into the Irish Channel area.
“Corner properties are some of the most important properties in urban fabric, so that’s exciting,” Martin said. “And that corner looks like it needs a good improvement, so this will serve it well.”
Records show Belladoggie, the company behind the spa and retail store Belladonna, bought the building in 2008 for $850,000.
As the building on Washington Avenue is converted into residential units, Belladoggie will be moving to another building, perhaps in a different area of the city, according to Jacob Lemnie, one of the business managers.
“We’re going to have all the amenities we have now, and the boarding and daycare and rehab capacity will increase,” Lemnie added.
