PITTSBORO — A splash pad, luxury suite and spacious yard may sound like perfect ingredients for a family vacation site, but Green Beagle Lodge — which has all that and more — wants to be like the Ritz Carlton for dogs.
The all-inclusive pet care facility officially cut the ribbon on its new Pittsboro location on Saturday. This is Green Beagle Lodge’s second location and first in Chatham County, offering more space and services than its Chapel Hill location.
The 11,000 sq. ft., 13-acre facility located at 120 Lodge Lane is just off U.S. Hwy. 64, five minutes from downtown Pittsboro and offers boarding, daycare, grooming and pet training all in one space for cats and dogs.
The owners of Green Beagle — Tammy and Drew Purner and David and Margy Schmidt — never thought of themselves as “dog people.”
They each owned a dog but never thought taking care of others’ dogs could become a business. The Purners and the Schmidts were longtime friends and “serial entrepreneurs” whose children grew up together.
Before their children were born, the Schmidts temporarily lived in London. Margy was part of a dog-walking society where she’d take her beagle on walks with her neighbors; she became friends with many of them. When she moved back to the U.S. she wanted to create that sense of community around pets stateside.
Fast forward to a cocktail party that the Schmidts and the Purners attended. Both were ready to move on from the corporate world and start something new.
A few months prior the Schmidts had placed a bid on a pet resort business in Lake Norman, they lost that bid but kept some of the paperwork because they were fascinated by the idea, which was “recession proof,” according to David.
As they sorted through the business model with the Purners at the party, an idea came.
“This is a really good business model,” Margy Schmidt said.
The margins were solid, the potential for growth was there and besides, who wouldn’t want to work with a dog everyday? Soon enough Green Beagle Lodge was born.
The origin of the company’s name comes from both the Purners and Schmidts owning beagles — Shiloh and Bing, respectively. The “Green” comes from the owners’ commitment to the environment through sustainable design features.
They bought land in Chapel Hill, opened their first location at 6805 Millhouse Rd. in 2014 and haven’t looked back since.
“We had no idea how fast it would grow,” Margy said.
She said the business quartet borrowed ideas from pet resorts across the country to create an all-inclusive model — one flat rate for your pet that includes all the amenities one puppy could need.
“Dogs only recognize familiar and unfamiliar,” Margy said. “We want them to make us familiar and be excited to be at our lodge.”
Green Beagle in Pittsboro is creating that excitement with a variety of amenities and plenty of outdoor playtime for the dogs under their care. The lodge is also already in the process of adding a pool and larger yard space in its second phase of construction.
David Schmidt says the second phase of construction is already underway and is expected to be completed by the summer.
The ownership group decided to open the second facility in Chatham County because they saw the potential for growth in the near future.
Chatham Park coming to Pittsboro along with other major industries in the county like VinFast and Wolfspeed mean Chatham is poised to be one of the fastest-growing counties in the state. All that growth means more families — and more dogs that will need a place to stay when those families go out of town for vacations and the like.
“We wanted it to be close enough that we could still keep an eye on how things are going in Chapel Hill,” David Schmidt said. “We also thought we’d be able to share staff between locations. So in Pittsboro, we’re far enough to draw a new customer base, but close enough to share staff and operations.”
Margy describes the new Pittsboro location as Green Beagle “on steroids.” She said being able to take the lessons from the Chapel Hill location and improve this facility means the workflow will be much more seamless in the new location.
For example, the new location has cabins for special needs dogs who need to be near humans and indoor/outdoor stalls, meaning there are special outdoor pods for dogs who don’t socialize well.
The new facility currently holds 130 dogs but will hold up to 250 dogs once the second phase of construction is complete. They also maintain a one employee to 10 dog ratio.
Schmidt didn’t provide the exact cost of the new facility, but it is a “multi-million dollar facility” that cost more than twice the amount of the Chapel Hill location, which was built eight years ago.
Green Beagle officially opened its doors in Pittsboro on Dec. 1, but Saturday’s ribbon-cutting marked the first time many in the community got to see all the new doggy daycare had to offer.
As patrons walked through the facility on tours from Green Beagle staff, “oohs” and “aahs” could be heard at all the lodge had to offer.
“It’s a pleasure to welcome Green Beagle Lodge to Pittsboro,” said Mayor Cindy Perry at the ribbon cutting Saturday. “The breadth and depth of our business community and our residential community are such that I’m sure you’ll have wonderful customers and clients at this facility.”
David Schmidt said they’ve felt incredibly welcomed by the Pittsboro community and they look forward to getting involved throughout the town in adoption events, job hirings and working with nearby dog shelters.
Green Beagle has already joined the Chatham Chamber of Commerce and has been in discussions with Chatham Park to continue building local business connections.
The new lodge was originally set to open last summer, but supply chain issues forced Green Beagle to delay. That time caused financial hardship for the company because they had to pay employees for an extra quarter. But they also made a commitment to those employees to make sure they’d have work when the facility did open.
The Schmidts said they want jobs at their facilities to be long-term careers where employees know their customers, both dog and human.
“This business is super fun when you do it right.” Margy said. “Because it’s such a privilege to be trusted with somebody’s prized possession: their canine or feline. It just feels special.”
Green Beagle Lodge is currently open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday and 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. Prices for boarding range from $60 per night for a single dog to $100 per night for a family of three to four dogs or $25 per night for cats.
For more information about Green Beagle Lodge visit www.greenbeaglelodge.com.
Reporter Ben Rappaport can be reached at brappaport@chathamnr.com or on Twitter @b_rappaport.