CAMDEN – MBNA America will consolidate its offices here and lease vacant space to create a new commercial district.

The credit card lender, which employs 4,500 in 10 Maine communities, created 75 jobs in Camden in 1993 when it first arrived in the state.

The number of employees in the former Knox Mill complex ranges between 400 and 450, the company stated in an announcement. That will not change with the consolidation.

Vacating the space, however, provides a longtime business a new home.

The Owl & Turtle Bookshop, which has been located on Bayview Street for 33 years, learned in August that the building owners would not renew its

lease.

Paul Lerner, who owns the store with his wife, Carole, found out that the his landlords had leased the building to the owners of Sherman’s Books, a business that operates in Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Boothbay Harbor and Freeport.

On Thursday, Lerner said he was thrilled to have found a new home for the store.

“They approached us,” he said of MBNA. “I’m just remarkably pleased at the idea.”

Lerner had tried to find another suitable space in Camden but had not been successful.

“We really thought we were going out of business,” he said. “This has been like a gift.”

The space MBNA will lease to the Owl & Turtle had housed the Knox Mill Museum, a collection of historical artifacts associated with the former woolen mill.

The collection will be stored, MBNA spokeswoman Carolyn Marsh said. The company is discussing a future home for the collection with the Camden-Rockport Historical Society.

Lerner said he will begin work on the 2,800-square-foot space in early January. The store expects to open on Mechanic Street near the intersection of Washington Street on March 1.

“It’s absolutely comfortable,” he said of the space. “More than adequate.”

Lerner said his wife is designing the layout.

MBNA plans to find tenants for the remaining vacant space, Marsh said.

Lerner said MBNA officials told him they hope to find a mix of retail, restaurant and office uses for the buildings along Mechanic Street, including the space formerly leased by the Sea Dog pub.

In a statement, Chip Messick, MBNA’s northern regional director, said the company remained “committed to its presence in Camden.”

Though it employs far more in Belfast and Rockland, Camden has represented a home base for MBNA, in part because company co-founder Charlie Cawley maintains a summer home there.

Earlier this month, MBNA had a contractor remove a “sky bridge,” a second-story glass hallway that connected the Mechanic Street buildings to the main mill building on Washington Street. That work prompted speculation around town that the company would sell the Mechanic Street buildings.

The company is trying to sell its first corporate retreat center off Route 1 in Lincolnville, its first office in Rockland off Old County Road and a building along Belfast’s waterfront.