WATERVILLE — A florist will relocate from its current location at the Hathaway Creative Center to downtown Main Street early next year in a move that comes as the city and Colby College work to diversify retail options in the area as part of the downtown revitalization effort.

Colby College announced this week that The Robin’s Nest will move into a college-owned building at 173 Main St. The new location will be about four times larger than the florist’s current space and will allow for expanded offerings.

“We quickly outgrew our current shop and were literally working in nearly every empty corner for the last three years, so finding more space was critical to our continued growth,” Robin Samalus-Getchell, owner of The Robin’s Nest, said in a news release issued by Colby. “Leaving the Hathaway Creative Center is bittersweet but knowing that we will be part of the transformational downtown revitalization is exciting.”

Bixby Chocolate, a chocolate-confections company based in Rockland, had previously planned to use the space but announced in August that it would instead open an artisan café at Colby’s Paul J. Schupf Art Center, also on Main Street, when the center opens next year.

The building at 173 Main St., which was previously home to Waterville Savings Bank, was purchased by Colby in 2015 and renovated. This will be the first time the building is fully leased and occupied in several decades.

Samalus-Getchell opened The Robin’s Nest in 2018. She has worked as a floral designer in the area for 25 years. The Robin’s Nest expects to open the new shop in early February, in time for Valentine’s Day.

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