Wag Watch Throws Grand Opening Puppy Pawty and K9 Kegger in Northern Liberties for Doggy Daycare

Tails are wagging in Northern Liberties! Wag Watch brings Philly’s fastest growing neighborhood a sparkling new dog daycare and retail boutique. Co-founders Jason Jennings and Brian Kelly invite dog owners and their four-legged furry friends to a free K9 Kegger on Saturday, June 25, 2022, from 11:00am to 2:00pm. The “pup pawty” will invite local dog owners into their state-of-the-art facility for free daycare, giveaways, goodies, and ice cold beer. The event will feature free tours, meet & greets with the founders, playtime for furry playmates, complimentary beverages, chances to win prizes, and other surprises. Wag Watch is one of seven grand openings in progress in Northern Liberties, following recent openings by Pera Turkish Cuisine, 70SIX Boutique, 1040 Creative Art Center and Gallery and Ray’s Reusables, with many more to come. Wag Watch is located in a brand new building at 807 N. 3rd Street, in Philadelphia, PA 19123.

“Northern Liberties is one of the most dog friendly neighborhoods in the city,” said Northern Liberties Business Improvement District Executive Director Kris Kennedy. “We have multiple dog parks, two pet supply shops, and now Wag Watch! We know Wag Watch will be a great addition to the neighborhood, offering reliable pet sitting and grooming to local furry friend parents. Jason and Brian are offering a much-needed service for dog owners in Northern Liberties, Kensington, Fishtown, Olde City, and beyond. We're delighted to add them to the list of canine-serving businesses in the neighborhood, including Doggie Style and Unleashed by Petco. We are also thrilled to welcome Jason and Brian to our growing list of new small business owners opening in our neighborhood and district.”

“Northern Liberties prides itself on being a haven for dogs,” said Wag Watch Co-Owner Jason Jennings. “It was critical to us that we had a blank canvas to design a facility that could properly meet the needs of all our dogs - lots of space for our athletes, rooms uniquely configured to ensure every dog can have fun, and ample outdoor access. We’ll continue building an experience that brings them joy with the highest safety standards - because happy dogs are what life is all about, right?”

Wag Watch is a luxury dog daycare that also offers ancillary services, plus features a front-of-house retail boutique. The company's vision is to create the highest level of trust between owners, handlers, and dogs. They do that by cultivating a safe, clean, fun, and highly transparent environment for dogs to embrace their inner joy, and for handlers to embrace their passion for nurture.

Jennings, an Allentown native, and Kelly, who hails from Atlanta, are lifelong dog lovers who believe dogs are truly members of the family. Jennings, a former high school teacher, moved to Philadelphia in 2017 to earn his MBA from Wharton and work for BCG. He and Kelly were doggy daycare customers themselves, but had a vision of rolling the best parts of their experiences into one premium product. They did not want to take over an existing site for their first location, and instead chose to build a luxury space from a clean slate. The founders worked with world class architects, designers and engineers to reshape the doggy daycare experience to best fit the needs of dogs and their owners, all with safety and fun top of mind.

The 3,300 square foot space offers five separate, unique environments to ensure pets have access to the features and friends that best match their play style. Fun themed areas include Mutt Mountain, Terrier Town, Golden Gym, Lab Lounge, and Portie Park. The space also includes impeccable attention to detail from safe and secure door handles, acoustics, and air filtration, to an outdoor area to help encourage healthy potty habits. Wag Watch also features the latest in technology including effortless booking, live camera streaming, and daily report cards.

Wag Watch currently offers doggy daycare, bathing and retail, with more services to come in the future. Daycare rates begin at $38 per day with five and ten day packages available. Bathing ranges from $14 for an exit bath to $20 for a full service bath.

For their grand opening celebration, Wag Watch invites neighbors and visits to bring their well behaved four legged friends to a K9 Kegger Party - which was designed to bring together the owners’ (and neighborhood’s) love of doggos and craft beer. The celebration will take place on Saturday, June 25, 2022, from 11:00am to 2:00pm, with free daycare for fully vaccinated dogs, giveaways, goodie bags and ice cold beer, plus great vibes, music and more.

For more information about Wag Watch and services, please visit www.wagwatchusa.com, or find them on Instagram at @wag_watch.

SEVEN GRAND OPENINGS THIS SPRING

Northern Liberties Business Improvement District is proud to celebrate Wag Watch as one of seven new businesses to open recently and in future weeks, with nearly a dozen more to open and/or be announced this summer and fall.

Pera led the charge with their grand opening weekend April 1st to 3rd, Ray's Reusables in time for Earth Day Weekend on Earth Day Friday, April 22 and Saturday, April 23rd, and 1040 Creative Art Center and Gallery with a soft opening on Friday, April 29 and grand opening on Friday, May 6th, and Wag Watch will host their opening on Saturday, June 25, 2022. The Shake Seafood is getting ready for their grand opening next, with more to come. Northern Liberties Business Improvement District in partnership with Northern Liberties-based PR firm Aversa PR will have more details on grand openings each week as they happen and are confirmed.

Grand Opening April to July:
* Pera Turkish Cuisine
* 70SIX
* Bikes by Design
* Ray's Reusables
* Wag Watch
* The Shake Seafood
* 1040 Creative Art Center and Gallery

Other businesses about to open and be announced include seven new eateries, cafes and restaurants, with even more to still come by this summer. In modern history, this will be the single largest number of new restaurants, retail and small businesses to open in the city's young business improvement district.

Many of the new openings are a result of several years of work by NLBID to recruit and also ready small businesses as they look for a new place to open and/or as they look to expand from festivals and virtual sales to actual brick-and-mortar locations. Programs that worked to recruit these businesses included extensive new business recruitment outreach, the Northern Liberties Pop-up Shops which matched small businesses with vacant retail spaces, and Retail Ready Bootcamp in partnership with the Community College of Philadelphia.

Northern Liberties also saw over a dozen new businesses open during the pandemic already, with a list that included:

* Anejo
* Bagels and Co.
* Figo Ristorante
* Figo Pizzeria
* Set No Libs
* The Learning Experience
* Suya Suya
* Parmigiana
* 7 Boys Collective
* Nirvana Wellness Med Spa
* Ghost Collective
* Ken Loves BYOB

NORTHERN LIBERTIES GROWING AT RECORD RATE

Wag Watch is opening in one of Philadelphia's fastest growing neighborhoods - one that will see a population literally double in size within two years. With all those people, come all those four-legged friends. Wag Watch is ready to meet the demand!

The population in the popular Philadelphia neighborhood is expected to nearly double in two short years, with 5,000+ new residential units and 184,655 square feet of commercial on deck or under construction. Northern Liberties continues to be one of Philadelphia’s hottest and fastest growing neighborhoods. Currently, there are 5,000+ new residential units and 184,655 square feet of commercial on deck or under construction. There are also other new nearby and adjacent projects announced in recent weeks that will be added to these totals. It is estimated that 5,000 to 10,000 new residents would move into the neighborhood in the next two years, essentially doubling the population in Northern Liberties (Callowhill to Girard, 6th St to the river). An additional 5,000 to 10,000 people are expected to move into adjacent and nearby projects as well.

A running and evolving project list includes:
5th and Spring Garden - 382 units, 6,000 sq ft commercial
Piazza Terminal - 861 units, 35,000 sq ft commercial
6th and Fairmount - 350 units, 18,000 sq ft commercial
418 Spring Garden - 330 units, TBD sq ft commercial
501 Columbus Blvd - 481 units, 37,000 sq ft commercial
310 Girard - 185 units, 6,400 sq ft commercial
342 Girard - 45 units, TBD sq ft commercial
700 N Delaware - 482 units, 10,000 sq ft commercial
918 N Delaware 452 units, 16,855 sq ft commercial
200 Spring Garden - 355 units, 18,000 sq ft commercial
412 N 2nd - 387 units, 20,400 sq ft commercial
417 Callowhill - 220 units, no commercial
814-26 N 2nd St - 52 units, 8,000 sq ft commercial
1102-48 N 2nd - 25 units, 9,000 sq ft

The above growth also will come to include the The Piazza/Liberties Walk, which will be replacing 500 units and 150,000 sq ft commercial over the next several years.

Despite the pandemic, new businesses and the city’s most acclaimed new restaurants have continued to open in Northern Liberties at a record pace. Recent openings have included Bagels and Co., Anejo, SET NoLibs, Ken Love's BYOB, Suya Suya, Pelicana, Stickman Brews, 7 Boys Collective, Studio N Med Spa, Pancho's Cafe, and Figo. Leases have also been signed and secured for at least five yet-to-be-announced new businesses moving into well-known restaurant and retail spaces.

ABOUT NORTHERN LIBERTIES BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT

Northern Liberties Business Improvement District was formed in 2018 to provide supplements to the municipal services of the City of Philadelphia; maintain a safe, clean and vibrant commercial district for the benefit of the residents, users, and owners within the district, and to citizens of Philadelphia and the region; to create opportunities for the business and residential communities to come together to make improvements to the district; and develop and implement programs and services that ensure that Northern Liberties continues to be a desirable place to live, work, shop, invest and visit. For more information, see explorenorthernliberties.org.