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Highland Park dry cleaners to reopen under new ownership

Jeremy M. Lazarus | 7/8/2016, 4:37 p.m.
Good news for Lonnie McLaurin and up to 30 other people. They will soon be able to get their clothes ...
Mr and Mrs. Bellot

Good news for Lonnie McLaurin and up to 30 other people.

They will soon be able to get their clothes back from a closed dry cleaners in Highland Park.

As the Free Press described in the June 9-11 edition, Mr. McLaurin has been trying to get his clothes since the business at 1311 E. Brookland Park Blvd. shut down in late April. He, like others, had been required to pay in advance for the dry cleaning service.

He’ll be able to get his clothes Tuesday, July 5, when the dry cleaners reopens under new ownership — with a promise to return clothes to the former owner’s customers and to improve service going forward.

The new owners are Brittnii and Jean Bellot, who have a dry cleaning operation, Professional Touch, at 67 S. Laburnum Ave., in Henrico County.

They recently agreed to take over the Highland Park space and plan to rename it Professional Touch II Dry Cleaning.

Mrs. Bellot said she and her husband have spent the past week or so improving the Highland Park store in preparation to begin operations.

The couple met while students at Virginia Union University, with Mrs. Bellot earning a degree in psychology and Mr. Bellot in criminal justice, she said.

Their road into business began when they took their clothes to a cleaners.

“They did such a lousy job, we looked at each other and said, ‘We can do this better,’ ” Mrs. Bellot said.

She said they saved up and took over the dry cleaning business at Laburnum and Nine Mile Road about a year ago from the previous owner, whom she identified as Sheriess Dowtin.

After turning the operation around and regaining the trust of customers, she said she and her husband began talking with Mr. Dowtin and his brother, Emanuel Dowtin, the listed owner of the Highland Park space, about taking over that location, too.

The prospects grew after the Dowtins abruptly closed the Highland Park business in late April.

Mrs. Bellot said she and her husband “found a mess when we walked in.”

“There were clothes on racks, and there were clothes piled up in the back waiting to be cleaned,” she said.

“We’re going to make sure everyone gets their clothes. We want people to have a good experience when they come here.”