Coe’s Floral and Gifts, formerly Coe’s Campus Floral and Gifts, will no longer be a Welch Avenue mainstay; the business, now located at 303 Welch Ave., will move to a new location in Somerset Village later this month.

“We needed more space, essentially,” said owner Dan Brabec.

The new building — located at 2619 Northridge Parkway — is nearly complete, and Brabec said the location will open by Jan. 1.

Brabec said parking difficulties were a deciding factor in the move. On Welch Avenue, there sometimes was not enough room to park his delivery truck near the building, let alone places for customers to park their vehicles.

“I do think we’ll get more service from students because they’ll have a place to park,” Brabec said of the new facility.

Brabec said he is glad the shop will now have its own building instead of the fourth-floor space it currently occupies.

“It was just really inefficient to go up and down elevators,” he said.

Brabec said the new facility will include room to sell gifts, plants and home decor in addition to flowers.

“It’s going to be very contemporary as far as a flower shop goes,” he said.

He said his goal with the new building’s design is to tap into the atmosphere of Somerset Village.

“Our main theme for the new store was to make it really neighborhood-oriented,” he said.

The new location will make delivery to campus areas easier with access to the north side of campus via Stange Road, Brabec said.

“We’ll still actually be the closest flower delivery to campus,” he said.

Brabec, who graduated from Iowa State with a degree in horticulture, became manager of the shop while he was still in college.

He bought Coe’s Floral and Gifts in March of 2002 during his last semester at Iowa State.

“I didn’t really expect to manage a business while I was still in college, much less own a business,” he said.

Although Brabec was a new owner of the shop, Coe’s Floral Gifts has served the Ames community since 1932. It has been located on Welch Avenue since 1984.

Brabec said he is excited about the move to a new location and believes the new store will draw many customers.

“We are truly building a destination florist,” he said. “We really anticipate people coming around from outside of Ames to visit our store.”