LAFAYETTE, La. — A once boarded up former Burger King building in one of Lafayette’s busiest corridors is about to get a sweet new beginning.

After sitting vacant since early 2024, the building at the corner of Johnston Street and St. Mary Boulevard is being transformed into Meltdown Snoballs, the sixth location for the growing Louisiana-based snowball chain founded by 25-year-old entrepreneur Zein Clayton.

“That’s my favorite thing to do. Take abandoned buildings and make something fun out of it for teenagers, college students,” Clayton said.

Clayton has already opened five other snowball stands across Louisiana. His journey began in an unlikely time: during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“At 16, we had just come out of quarantine in 2020,” he recalled. “I was first looking at snoballs as a h

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