PORT ORCHARD — Peninsula BevCo, a lively brew tap house and eatery, has been a popular addition to the Bay Street business and entertainment scene since it opened in January.

But even as the fledgling business continues to attract new customers from the South Kitsap community — and curious visitors outside the area — BevCo and its collective of co-owners and adherents will be making a move to larger, more prominent quarters.

Harlan Morgan, a co-owner of the business, said early this week that BevCo is in the process of moving to the vacant former Amy’s By The Bay restaurant building, itself a popular eating and drinking establishment that closed at the end of December. Amy’s owner and operator Amy Creed said at the time that she was closing the restaurant so she could devote more time to her young family.

Cody Morgan, Harlan’s son, and his ownership collective negotiated a lease with the building’s owners over the past few weeks and received keys to the place early this week. They have already begun to move some furnishings into the space, Harlan Morgan said.

But before BevCo opens at its new location, Morgan said much needs to be done inside the space to get it ready for customers.

“We’ll need to move the bar here into sections so it can be taken to the new space,” Morgan said. “We have a lot to get done before we reopen the first part of August.”

That opening target is crucial, he said, so the establishment can benefit from the remainder of the summer tourist trade.

While the former Amy’s location is more central to the downtown’s natural waterfront gathering place — and certainly a step up in class from their current space — the owners hadn’t intended to make a move to another location so quickly.

According to Cody Morgan, BevCo’s ownership was told by Jack Pauu, the building’s owner, that the building doesn’t meet city code requirements and can’t be economically redeveloped. He said the group was given 90 days to vacate the space — setting off a scramble to find a new location.

“We were thinking of moving to a larger space maybe two years from now,” Harlan Morgan said, “not in 90 days.”

Nevertheless, a deal for the old Amy’s space, which they considered to be a long-shot, became a reality last week.

Details about the new Peninsula BevCo space will be made known soon, Morgan said, but he expects that menu offerings will be greatly expanded and will include a list of seafood items.