Old Uptown church next to Trader Joe’s site to become Brennan event venue. Here’s the

With its twin copper-topped towers, terra cotta roof and graceful, domed interior, the former Our Lady of Lourdes Church has been a monumental presence at 2400 Napoleon Ave. for very close to a century. But it’s been closed since Hurricane Katrina.

Local developers are in the process of converting the former church into a grand venue for weddings and other events, and now it will be run by one of the best-known names in New Orleans dining.

The restaurant group Dickie Brennan & Co. has partnered with the developers, a team led by David Fuselier and his sister Mimi Spiehler. The restaurant group will serve as the operations partner when the venue opens, booking, catering and producing its events.

The venue will be called The Josephine on Napoleon, a reference to the wife of the French emperor who gives his name to the avenue here.

“We couldn’t be more excited to have partnered with the Brennan’s in this project. Everything they do is so refined and class,” Fuselier said. “They were made for this space.”

The interior is a shell now, but there is a swift timeline to open. Fuselier is aiming for a soft opening by the end of the year, and having the venue fully operational before the Super Bowl in February. That would mark a new chapter for the building in time of its centennial in 2025.

New vision, Trader Joe’s next door

The development will bring a major new addition to the ranks of local event spaces, and one Uptown.

Steve Pettus, managing partner for Dickie Brennan & Co., believes that The Josephine on Napoleon will be especially popular for weddings. It’s being designed to host abroad range of events, and that could include ticketed events, like concerts and other performances.

Pettus said the developers initially approached the restaurant company to build out a kitchen for the event space, but those discussions grew into a partnership to operate the property.

“It’s exciting to see the remodeling of this historic building,” he said. “It will have a lot of versatility.”

The venue will have 4,500 square feet in the main banquet space, and special features throughout. Plans call for building out the choir loft as its own distinct space, for use as a bridal suite during weddings, for instance. Wings flanking the main hall will be turned into a pair of bars for events. The historic grotto near the former altar will be part of the event space too.

With courtyards and other spaces it will have 8,000 square feet available. Capacity for guests can range from 300 to 1,000 people depending on the configuration of indoor and outdoor spaces.

The event space project joins another, separate project poised to transform this block. Earlier in July, city officials gave approval to demolish the much more modern adjacent building, the former Our Lady of Lourdes School, green lighting plans to build a new “specialty grocery store” on the site. The Times-Picayune confirmed that will be a new Trader Joe’s store, part of the national grocery chain. That project is being led by brother-sister duo Fuselier and Spiehler and developer Zach Kupperman.

Both projects sit beside the historic Freret Street commercial strip, which in the post-Katrina era has had its own rapid revival as a restaurant row.

History, next chapter

The church was dedicated in 1925 and stands as a striking example of Mission Revival style architecture on a central Uptown corridor.

Dormant since the aftermath of Katrina, the property was sold by the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 2016 to a different set of developers before changing hands again. Fuselier and his partners began renovations in early 2023.

Its new life follows other examples of local church buildings being redeveloped as a secular  spaces, including the Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in the Marigny, now the Hotel Peter and Paul and opened in 2019, and the former St. Rose de Lima Catholic Church on Bayou Road found new life as a theater, now an arts complex.

At The Josephine on Napoleon, a key design element for future events will be image mapping (a.k.a. projection mapping) from local artist Brennan Steele. This can visually transform the interior by projecting scenes of anything from a rain forest to outer space, and Steele will be focused on the rear wall and the high domed ceiling.

“Both are beautiful examples of architecture that will be further enhanced with video projections,” Steele said. “The large dome will be similar in effect to a planetarium curated to suit each client needs.”

Steele called it a dream project for his work.

Brennan expands in events

The Josephine on Napoleon is the latest move for a company that’s known for restaurants that has an increasingly diverse hospitality portfolio.

“They have brought a lot of expertise to the table and some great ideas,” Fuselier said of his restaurant group partners. “I think we make a great team. This space is going to be truly beautiful and well thought out.”

The company, led by Pettus, namesake Dickie Brennan and his sister Lauren Brennan Brower, is one branch of the famous Brennan restaurant family (other branches run Brennan’s, Commander’s Palace, Mr. B’s Bistro and more).

Dickie Brennan & Co. is best known for its large French Quarter and downtown restaurants, including Palace Café, Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse, Bourbon House, and Tableau.

Last year it inked a deal with the Audubon Nature Institute and now handles catering and event service across that organization’s properties, including the Uptown zoo, downtown aquarium and other facilities.

“This makes us more of a one-stop shop for people planning events, because we have private rooms in restaurants, all these venues around the city, and now we’ll have this,” said Pettus.

That will mean hiring more staff, and having more opportunities for people already in the company, he said.

Dickie Brennan & Co. also runs Acorn, the café in the Louisiana Children’s Museum in City Park, the market/café the Commissary and last year it acquired the historic Pascal’s Manale Restaurant just a few blocks away from The Josephine on Napoleon.

The Josephine on Napoleon

2400 Napoleon Ave., projected opening early 2025