Arboretum Coffee is preparing to make its debut in the Granary Building this summer.

The local coffee shop is set to occupy roughly 600 square feet on the ground floor of the historic waterfront building.

“I just love this location,” co-founder of Arboretum, Ed Onishchenko said. “It feels like one of the last pieces of waterfront space in Washington.”

The goal is to have soft openings on the weekends in May and be open in early June, Onishchenko said.

Arboretum plans to offer award-winning, ethically sourced coffee from around the world. The shop has partnered with Mirror Coffee Roasters, another local start-up, to achieve this goal.

“I think as we grow as a roasting company it’s awesome to have a place like Arboretum partner with us because we are focused on not only taking part in sustainable practices but for the quality to be high end, craft coffee,” co-founder of Mirror Coffee Roasters, Mark Kutrovski said.

The inspiration for Arboretum was spurred by a combination of Onishchenko’s admiration for the craftsmanship of the Granary Building and his love for the coffee community in Bellingham.

“Coming out here to watch fireworks and seeing the construction happen I started to get all these ideas as to what would be cool to do in the building,” he said.

Onishchenko said he likes the idea of offering new and wild coffees with crazy roast profiles in addition to your typical medium roast.

“Once you develop a taste like a coffee connoisseur you tend to get a bit tapped out,” Onishchenko said. “We will always strive to showcase a really crazy coffee just to keep a lot of the coffee nerds here happy.”

Mirror, which works to support coffee farmers overseas, is still in the tasting mode of their operation.

Right now we have a really tasty Guatemalan natural process coffee, an Ethiopian natural process coffee and a Columbian coffee that a lot of people seem to like, Kutrovski said.

The name Arboretum was derived from the views of the Sehome Arboretum offered on the waterfront. Onishchenko said he is building the bar to offer food service but for starters will offer locally made pastries and sandwiches.

“The cool thing about being a new business is the opportunity to market it really well and keep a lot of things local,” Onishchenko said.