YARMOUTH — In 1975, Paul and Annamarie Trusiani purchased 585 Congress St., a mixed-use building in downtown Portland where they owned Paul's Food Center.

With the passing of Paul last September, the Trusiani family made a difficult decision to sell the property.

Enter Michael Cardente of Cardente Real Estate, who found a buyer for 585 Congress St., and then found for Annemarie Trusiani, now in her 80s and known as Momma T, a 1031 exchange property — a 13,800-square-foot retail strip center at 374 U.S. Route 1 in Yarmouth — for $1.9 million, in a deal that closed June 15. The latter property will allow Trusiani to defer capital gains taxes otherwise due on the Congress Street property — and, it's conveniently near her home.

"Mike did an amazing job in creating this opportunity for my mother," said Trusiani's son, Paul "Buzzy" Trusiani. "It was in everyone's interest to sell the Congress Street property. The way Mike was able to do that and then follow up and find another property for my mother was great."

The Yarmouth property was not on the market, said Cardente. But the seller, Fogg Farm LLC, decided to take advantage of the market's low capitalization rate and move on, Cardente said.

The strip center includes two buildings and dates to 1979. The property was perfect for Trusiani for a number of reasons, the broker said. She lives nearby and was looking for a stable investment. The center is located at the southern gateway to Yarmouth with convenient access to Interstate 295. It's extremely well-maintained and has excellent signage and visibility, and plenty of on-site parking, Cardente said.

Buzzy Trusiani agrees the purchase works well for his mother: It's low-maintenance with existing tenants and will provide a diversified base of income.

"We have a wonderful Chinese food restaurant that we greatly enjoy, a yoga studio, mortgage broker, hair salon, nail salon, model train store, Casco Bay Home Care, which provides services for people requiring care in their homes — it's a wide-ranging group of people serving the community," said Buzzy Trusiani.

Other tenants include Funeral Alternatives, Music Together of Greater Portland and Impawsible Impressions Dog Salon.

Cardente will manage the property with Trusiani's assistance.

The Yarmouth property consists of a dozen units ranging from 700 square feet to 12,000 square feet, and is almost fully tenanted, with one unit currently available.

"What's nice is the diversity and scale of the property," said Trusiani. "It's an inviting place for smaller businesses to get established in a small community like Yarmouth. One of the reasons we're excited about being part of the Yarmouth community is that we've lived in Cumberland and Falmouth all our lives, so we're familiar with Yarmouth. And we're excited about Yarmouth's future."

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) --

The city of Portland hosted a bus tour of Portland's east bayside neighborhood on Thursday.

The city is trying to figure out how to distribute $200,000 in federal grant money in the neighborhood.

The money will help people who own and want to redevelop brownfield sights figure out how to do that.

East Bayside was selected as one of twenty neighborhoods in the country to get the money.

It was full of heavy industry for around a hundred years.

Some businesses owners hope they receive the grant money to continue their existing development projects.

“It will hopefully allow us to do some additional planning and try to overcome some of the obstacles that are preventing development,” said Michael Cardente, a property owner interested getting some help from the grant.

City leaders say the process of getting the sites and neighborhood fully revitalized will take time.

“We have a lot of obstacles in terms of the way it was laid out and in terms of pollutants in the ground,” said Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling. “This was really a chance for people to understand what some of those pieces are that are obstacles but also to see there are some interesting and exciting developments and ways people have turned, perhaps, some of the problems down here into real opportunities.”

Thursday's bus tour was the beginning of the process of selecting properties to invest in.

Other steps will include official city approval and community workshops.

PORTLAND — A historic building at 11 Brown St. in Maine's most populous city is on track in its conversion to luxury condominiums.

Portland developer Jack Soley paid $950,000 for the turn-of-the-century building in late 2015 as part of his mission to preserve the city's historic buildings and leverage the condo market. The site will include a ground-floor restaurant, just as the building had until the closure of Margarita's a year ago.

On May 25, Soley finalized the sale of the basement and first floor to Phelps Craig, owner of the BRGR Bar in Portsmouth, N.H. She plans her second BRGR Bar for the Portland location.

In the meantime, Soley and his nephew Dan Soley been investing approximately $1 million to redevelop the second, third and fourth floors into luxury condominiums — two units on the second floor and one 2,400-square-foot unit each on the third and fourth floors.

Since the 1930s, the top two floors had been used for storage. The building is part of what's known as the Eastman Block. Eastman Bros. & Bancroft, a major dry-goods retailer established in 1865, owned several buildings near the intersection of Brown and Congress streets, according to the Maine Historical Society, though it's not clear what the exact use of this particular building had been. The store closed in the Great Depression.

"Eastman" is inscribed in granite on the front of the building and the condos will be called the Eastman Block Condominiums.

"We're fairly far along in our conversion," said Soley. "We just started putting up sheetrock. In early July we'll start installing the final plumbing fixtures, the kitchens, flooring and finishes. We hope to be complete in late July."

The renovation will highlight the building's historic feel and features. The top three floors have ceiling heights of at least 12 feet, which will be preserved. The original huge, rough-hewn floor joists will be visible and the original hardwood flooring is being refinished.

"We'll keep the same large window openings that were originally designed with the building," said Soley. "Once that's all done, it will have a feeling almost like a New York loft space, which will be very unusual for the Portland area. These are unique units that will have lots of historic charm, tremendous ceiling height, huge windows, and a distinctly loft feeling."

The restaurant space has its own place in the city's history. It once housed the HuShang restaurant, which opened in 1979 and was one of the first restaurants to help transform Portland into a foodie destination. HuShang, known as the restaurant that introduced Portland to authentic Chinese food., closed in 1986. Afterward, Margaritas was there for 18 years, closing in August 2015.

BRGR Bar set to open in fall

In a deal that closed May 25, Soley sold the basement and first floor to Craig, who is the midst of design and renovation for her second BRGR Bar. Jessamyn Mackey and Peter Harrington of Malone Commercial Brokers represented Soley in the transaction. Michael Rogers of Maine Real Estate Network represented Craig.

Craig has been in the restaurant business in Portsmouth since 2003. Her previous restaurants included Green Monkey, serving eclectic cuisine, and Brazo, a Latin American restaurant. She sold both of those to start BRGR Bar in 2014.

"I decided to expand the BRGR Bar concept up north," Craig said. "It's behind the Civic Center and near the Asylum [music venue] and right off Congress Street, so the location is great."

Craig expects to invest $400,000 in the build-out and hopes to be open by October or November. She'll split her time between the two restaurants.

"We're excited to do business in Portland," she said.

It is our pleasure to announce and congratulate this year's 2016 REALTOR of the Year: Greg Perry of Cardente Real Estate.

Greg has been a REALTOR since 2006 and currently serves as a Director on the Maine Commercial Association Board of Directors & NECPE Board of Directors on which he has served in both capacities since 2013. In 2015, Greg spearheaded the 1st Annual MCAR Charity Golf Tournament which raised over $6,600 for Morrison Center.