The new owner of a Wilmington shopping center was able to make an investment here because of a purchase in Charlotte in the 1980s.

Ed Godwin, a retired general commercial contractor, bought Cornerstone Shopping Center at 1616 Shipyard Blvd. this week for a sale price of $2.28 million through a like-kind exchange under Section 1031 of the federal tax code.

According to the code, a 1031 exchange allows a property owner to postpone paying tax on a gain if he or she reinvests sale proceeds in similar property as part of a qualifying like-kind exchange.

Godwin said his Wilmington 1031 exchange was made possible through the sale of his Charlotte property, for much more than he paid for it decades ago.

At the time, “I needed an office space and warehousing to store construction materials and equipment, so I bought a little building down there" in what today is Charlotte’s booming South End, Godwin said.

When he shut down his firm in Charlotte in 1997, Godwin had a list of people “as long as your arm” who wanted to rent the building that had served his business for so many years. “It was a good investment, and it just got better and better and better,” he said.

Godwin, who grew up in Wrightsville Beach before moving to Charlotte and came back to the Wilmington area in 2003, said he’s excited to update and improve Cornerstone Shopping Center and attract new tenants.

Current tenants include Krazy Pizza & Subs, The Lunchbox, One Belle Bakery and Quilting Crafts-N-Things, among others.

Jack Kilbourne of Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Co. represented Godwin in his purchase from the previous owner, Cornerstone Shopping Center LLC. Mike Brown of Cape Fear Commercial represented the seller.

Kilbourne said Godwin is ready to do a custom build-out for the center's vacant space.

That vacancy in the 23,000-square-foot center amounts to about 4,500 square feet depending on the outcome of a pending lease for another 1,200 square feet.