Poché Building

Poché Building was built in 1920 to house the locally-owned Billeaud Motor Company and remained in use as an automobile dealership until 1948. In 1996, the building’s new owners, Poché Prouet Associates, Ltd., now called the Southwest Group, restored and repurposed the building into commercial office space. The Southwest Group is well known in Lafayette for their experience in historic building construction projects. They are responsible for historic rehabilitation projects that have placed deteriorating buildings back in to commercial use, such as the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Exchange Building and the Tribune Building. Among the many projects they have completed, the Southwest Group is also responsible for rehabilitating the Cal Chlor Building on Jefferson Street, Tsunami’s Restaurant on Jefferson Street, which was originally the 1933 Abdalla’s Department Store, and the Cathedral Carmel School buildings, the earliest of which was built in 1919.