The Bay Leaf, a downtown retailer that sells coffee, cutlery, cookware and other unique kitchen accessories, plans to move down the street a few doors – a shift that will make room for a longtime jeweler to remodel and a new tenant to return to Massachusetts Street.

The Bay Leaf, which has operated for more than 30 years at 725 Mass., officially announced Monday what had long been expected: The store is moving to 717 Mass., next door to Buffalo Bob’s Smokehouse.

The new place has what the old one didn’t: enough room to expand.

“We’re trying to create a destination environment, to enhance the shopping experience,” said Geri Riekhof, who bought the store six years ago and plans for the new place to have more items, plus a kitchen for demonstrations and hands-on classes. “In order to continue to exist, sometimes you’ve got to step up to the plate and jump in with both feet to create the kind of atmosphere for our customers to keep coming downtown.”

The new place will have more than 2,600 square feet on the main level, up from about 1,400 square feet a few doors down, plus offer room for expansion in a basement with 10-foot-high ceilings.

Peter Zacharias, who owns Goldmakers at 723 Mass., also is getting to work.

Zacharias last week purchased the building that has been home to The Bay Leaf for the past three decades.

The $625,000 purchase is only the beginning. Once The Bay Leaf moves out, by March 1, Zacharias will move his jewelry store into the empty space so he can put a new “historically correct” hardwood floor in his existing place, which he’s had since 1972.

New fire-suppression sprinklers will go in both sides of the building, and Goldmakers will return to 723 Mass. as a host of other historically sensitive upgrades come online – from an old-fashioned sign out front to period wallpaper inside.

It’s a major overhaul for a building built by the Miller brothers beginning in 1855, which survived Quantrill’s Raid in 1863.

“Our ticket to our future success will be our past, and we have a pretty significant past,” Zacharias said.

Once Zacharias has moved back into 723 Mass., another retailer will be set to move into The Bay Leaf’s old space: BoMo, offering a “bohemian modern” vision of “eclectic home decor.” That store – to be led by former Massachusetts Street retailer Deanna Ricketts, who operated Boheme clothing store at 822 Mass. – will be expected to open April 1.