Redix, a store that has served customers in Wrightsville Beach for more than 45 years, plans to open a downtown Wilmington location this summer.

The announcement that the business, known for selling beach-lifestyle apparel and equipment, will expand into a second store at 104 Grace St. was greeted with murmurs of excitement during an event attended Wednesday by hundreds of local business leaders and professionals at the Wilmington Convention Center.

Daniel P. Reddick, the director of e-commerce for Redix, said the uptick in development downtown, including new businesses and Cape Fear Community College's growth, led to the decision to open the new store in an historic downtown building.

“I've just seen a change in the past five years in what's going on downtown,” said Reddick, discussing plans for the new store after Wilmington Downtown Inc.'s Economic Series Luncheon on Wednesday. “It seemed like a good opportunity.”

The new Redix store will occupy about 3,300 square feet in the former Self Help building, which also formerly housed a department store still remembered by longtime residents of Wilmington who shopped there.

“We're excited to be going in the old Efird department store building,” Reddick said.

John Hinnant, a broker with Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Company and the listing agent for the space, represented Redix in the transaction, and Uhl Inc. will be the general contractor for the store's upfit. The new Redix, which will have an entrance on Grace Street, will occupy the same building as and be located behind Outdoor Equipped, 272 N. Front St., a mostly online outdoor clothing and gear company that opened its first storefront late last year.

The Reddick family started the Wrightsville Beach Redix in 1969. Daniel Reddick said the business plans to open the downtown store with six to eight employees by about the middle of May this year, depending on how the permitting process goes.