More property in downtown Wilmington has recently changed hands.

The former home of Costello's Piano Bar, a longtime Port City establishment that closed in August, now belongs to a family of investors based in France.  LFM Canastel LLC, which includes Francoise Mereyde and her sons, Laurent and Franck, has acquired the first two floors of the building at 211 Princess St.

Francois Mereyde is the mother of Wilmington resident Marc Mereyde, founder and CEO of web design and digital marketing firm TiktoPlus, and Laurent and Franck are Marc's brothers. Marc Mereyde is not an LFM Canastel LLC investor but has been supportive of his family's Wilmington real estate interest. 
 
"We love Wilmington and it is not our first real estate investment in the Cape Fear Region. We see great potential in Wilmington," Francois Mereyde said in an email this week. "Right now, we are concentrating on much needed repairs, maintenance work and possible renovations.  The second floor is already occupied by a residential tenant. The first floor will be closed for a while to allow us to perform all necessary work. We are still assessing what needs to be done."

She said once renovations are complete at some point in the future, LFM Canastel LLC will rent the former Costello's space to a new tenant. The Mereydes already have a potential tenant lined up, but nothing is final yet, she said. 

LFM Canastel LLC bought the two floors for $420,000 from Two Eleven Investments LLC, according to the deed recorded in New Hanover County. In Wilmington, the firm also owns 1116 N. Fourth St.

In another recent transaction, James Goodnight purchased the parking lot at 10 S. Front St. (shown below), across the street from several Front Street properties Goodnight has bought in recent years. The $475,000 transaction includes some ruins in the back that share a wall with 5 Water St., Goodnight said in a recent email. 

"The short-term plan is to stabilize the structure while maintaining the rest as parking. It's great piece of dirt in the middle of the action, so who knows what the future holds," Goodnight said in the email.

Meanwhile, the work he's done on 1 S. Front St., another of his properties, has generated some buzz, Goodnight said. Although not really advertised yet, the revamped top floors of the property are "already getting some strong interest from word of mouth" and recent news stories, he said. The building will be on a Wilmington Downtown Inc. property tour on Sept. 28.

Goodnight, son of SAS founder and New Hanover High School graduate Jim Goodnight, entered the Wilmington market in 2014 when he bought and began renovations on 21 S. Front St., home of Untappd, Untappd's parent firm Next Glass and other companies. He bought 9 S. Front St., where the first floor is occupied by restaurant Platypus & Gnome, in March 2016. 

Asked about some work crews had undertaken recently at the Platypus & Gnome building (pictured at right), Goodnight wrote in an email, "9 S Front is a happening place right now. After the great reception of the new paint scheme at 1 S Front we continued next door and freshened up the paint. Part of this included removing sections of the historic cornice to make sure that the wooden structure behind it was sound (I'd hate to have it come off in a strong wind). The renovation of 1 and 9 included reopening the historic connections between the two buildings, leaving us with office suites that span both buildings on floors 2 and 3."

While 1 S. Front will be on a WDI tour Sept. 28, living spaces in downtown Wilmington are the subject of a WDI tour this weekend. the featured properties include apartments, condominiums and houses, and tickets are available online.