NEW ORLEANS – Lauren LeBlanc Haydel issued a warning of changes in the French Quarter as she announced her popular St. Peter Street Fleurty Girl shop is being forced to close.

The French Quarter Fleurty Girl location has been open for seven years, Haydel said in an emotional Facebook post, but that all changed with a phone call she received on March 11.

“I received an unexpected call Monday that our beloved building where our shop is in the French Quarter, (where Tennessee Williams wrote ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’), had been sold to a buyer who paid $2.1 million for our building, ($400K above property value), in cash, and needed Fleurty Girl out immediately,” Haydel wrote.

After saying she was able to negotiate an extension that will allow the store to remain open through French Quarter Fest, Haydel had a dire warning for fellow French Quarter business owners.

“Things are changing,” she wrote. “Pay attention. Parts of places we know and love are being bought and sold at prices way out of our reach to a bidder we cannot possibly compete with.”

Haydel said the brand’s other locations will remain open, and said she plans to return to the French Quarter within six months, but laments losing her shop on St. Peter Street.

“We were honored to be there. Every. Single. Day,” she wrote. “Seven years is a long time. Not a single rent check ever late. New Orleans is changing. Pay attention.”