Jeff Hovis has watched lots along North Fourth Street change hands many times in the past decade, as the area’s real estate scene has evolved.

In the past six months alone, Hovis, a broker with Intracoastal Realty Corp., said he’s sold four lots in the Brooklyn Arts District corridor. He’s also listing two commercial properties in the area: buildings that have housed the bottle shop and bar Palate at 1007 N. Fourth St. and Acme Art Studios at 711 N. Fifth Ave.

Nearby, the former Edward Teach Brewing building, at 604 N. Fourth St., is up for sale after being listed in March. The buildings and lots create the potential for new investment in the growing corridor, especially for mixed-use projects, Hovis said.

“Over the years, I’ve watched (development) accelerate and sort of slow a little bit and accelerate,” Hovis said about the corridor. “The amount of activity and the people that we’re walking with and talking to are all people who want to bring additional services in, and most of them have a (mixed-use) opportunity.

“It’s not just one entity saying they want it to be an office building,” he said. “The ones that want to have office, want to have office downstairs, but they want to have the income from residential units above.”

Floral designer Kristy Holt has operated her business, Eco Chic Blossoms, which specializes in weddings and events, at 713 N. Fourth St. for nearly 13 years. When she opened, there weren’t many nearby businesses, but since then, she watched the district evolve. After leasing for two years, Holt and her husband decided to buy the space after their landlord approached them about buying the unit.

“We could see growth coming very, very slowly,” she said. “We just felt like it was the right decision at the time to kind of get in here early before everything got super popular.”

Holt said that early signs of future growth along North Fourth Street included development in the nearby northern end of downtown, including Port City Marina, Live Oak Bank Pavilion and apartment complexes such as Pier 33.

Today, the Brooklyn Arts District is home to mixed-use projects and commercial buildings, housing a range of businesses from Flytrap Brewing, Brooklyn Cafe, Goat & Compass, Boombalatti’s, Pineapple Studios and Pizzeria Don Luca, among others.

Hovis said the corridor is well-positioned between commercial- and retail-heavy downtown and residential neighborhoods on Wilmington’s Northside. That transition area is attractive to businesses and residents alike, Hovis said.

When listing properties in well-known areas like North Fourth Street, it can be difficult to assign a price to the ongoing growth of an area or the value of a business that previously operated in a building, according to Hovis.

“Sometimes it’s hard to assign a tangible value to a name or a tradition, or just the fact that people know it’s always been there,” he said.

Palate’s 2,000-square-foot building and its surrounding 0.3-acre lot quietly came onto the market about a month before the business announced its plans to close on June 13.

The property, listed at $1.5 million, could maintain a similar bar-and-bottle shop use, but the new owners could also add a kitchen or a residential component on top of the existing building, Hovis said. The property’s zoning designation is central business district (CBD), which means it has no setback requirements and a by-right maximum building height of 50 feet.

Nearby, the former Edward Teach Brewing building is being marketed for sale or lease. When the property came onto the market, Lindsey Hess, a senior vice president with Cape Fear Commercial and the listing agent, said the roughly 7,500-square-foot building could serve as a turnkey brewery or accommodate other uses, such as an event venue or taproom. The listed price is $2.85 million.

The Acme Art Studios building is listed for $4.4 million. The property includes five adjacent parcels in the area, Hovis said, spanning from Fifth Avenue to Fourth Street. While the lots are being marketed together, a new owner could split the property and develop parts for other uses, Hovis said.

“I could see there being multiple uses for the Acme site, which the remaining gallery-type art facility could continue, because other stuff around it could go up to support it,” he said. “There’s some folks looking at that.”

Holt said she expects to see the area continue to change with new development in the years to come.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more (development) because there are some pretty large empty pieces of land. And it’s a great area because if you don’t want to be right in the heart of the hustle and bustle on Front Street, this area is a little bit quieter,” she said, “but there’s a lot going on.”