PORTLAND — Popular women’s retailer Anthropologie is bringing its free-spirited aesthetic to Maine. The first store in the state is set to open in downtown Portland in 2015.

After a year of negotiations, the Philadelphia-based company owned by Urban Outfitters, Inc. signed a lease in late summer with building owner Tim Soley of East Brown Cow Management, Inc. to turn the corner of Middle and Pearl streets into a house of style with upscale fashions. The opening date is March 6.

This month, work crews began knocking down walls and framing the first-floor space that encompasses two buildings and more than 8,000 square feet. The main storefront in a 19th-century building has been vacant for over two years. The last tenant was Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“In the last 25 years, we’ve seen Portland change from a town to a small city,” said Soley, who owns multiple buildings downtown and built the Hyatt Place on Fore Street, which opened in May.

The development is a sign of a strengthening economy and renewed faith in urban commerce. Businesses that fled to malls across the country are slowly starting to return to cities like Portland, where a string of new condos, hotels and brisk development have created a robust, business-friendly environment with more affluent shoppers in circulation.

Last year Ethan Allen furniture closed its store near the Maine Mall and opened on Commercial Street.

“That these types of businesses are coming downtown again is very exciting for Maine,” Soley said. “The way of life has changed dramatically.”

Soley is thrilled the company, with 185 stores across the country, Canada and the United Kingdom, chose Portland over areas like Freeport and the Maine Mall, with huge parking lots and big-box anchors.

“Those tenants for the last 25 to 40 years have gone to Freeport to the north or South Portland to the south. They have not been downtown,” Soley said. “They are coming downtown again, and that is exciting.”

East Brown Cow invested three-quarters of a million dollars to make the location work for Anthropologie. The renovation includes taking over the space that once was Dobra Tea, which moved to Exchange Street, updating the heating and cooling systems and refurbishing historic details like its original stone-step entrance on Middle Street.

Blue Rock Construction of New Jersey started interior work this month. Portland is one of three U.S. cities where Anthropologie stores are being built this year. Chicago and New York are the other two cities, according to supervisor Bob Layton, who added that reclaimed wood from Minnesota will be used for flooring.

Soley, who bought the building in 1993, said it is a showcase that has long been shrouded.

“There are huge windows in an amazing 19th-century structure that has a wonderful presence. Now it will be alive,” he said. “This adds more to the life of the street.”

Along with such renewed energy comes growing pains.

The popular retailer that sells trendy women’s clothing, jewelry and home decor could pose a threat to Portland’s eclectic mix of independent shops. With Urban Outfitters down the street, Kazeem Lawal, owner of Portland Trading Co., which is on the same block as the newcomer, is ready for action.

“It will be good or it could be bad. It depends on how you deal with it,” he said.

Lawal, who sells a refined mix of clothing and lifestyle accessories, is ready to adapt to the new currents and changing clientele downtown.

“I am going to be more focused on what I do and roll up my sleeves,” Lawal said.

“It is natural for people to say, ‘This is the end of Portland’s innocence. You have an Urban Outfitters, a Starbucks, soon Anthropologie — what’s next?’” he continued. “It’s still Portland. This is not New York.”

Not yet.

City officials say there is room enough in this marketplace for big and small retailers.

Chris Hall, CEO of Portland Regional Chamber, said a company like Anthropologie, with stores in Beverly Hills to New York’s SoHo, is a harbinger of good things to come.

“The firm is wildly successful,” he said. “It’s an indication that Portland is able to support that national level of excellence. It’s a vote of confidence in Portland, and we are proud to have it.”