In Howard County, Md., a former Burlington Coat Factory (nyse: BCF - news - people ) warehouse is being converted into 60 commercial condos ranging from 1,000 square feet to 45,000 square feet. In Boise, Idaho, a six-building commercial condo includes 52 units from 1,000 to 3,000 square feet. And a 78-year-old Charlotte, N.C., Packard auto dealership is being restored as commercial condos, preserving its 20-foot ceilings and original vintage granite and copper facade. The commercial co-op or condo-market is still a very small fraction of the entire real estate pool, yet because of its small size and rapidly growing demand, it's also one of the most rapidly appreciating markets as well.

Indeed, there's a lot more to the condo-mania that's building across the country than civic preservation or urban development. There's also greed, fed by a very real sense that's been prevalent in residential real estate for several years and by the belief that now is the time to get in on the action before it's too late.

The advantages are not dissimilar to those that prompted the launch of the residential real estate boom several years ago--no rents, building and equity ownership and big tax advantages--that often mean that for little more than the rent a business might have paid, they can become a player in an exploding real estate market.

The downside, of course, is that rallies do not go on forever. In every economic cycle, there are booms and there are busts. Indeed, there is a viewpoint that real estate is now in the early-1929 period of a pre-depression stock market bubble. That was the moment when even Wall Street shoe-shine boys were buying the stocks their clients were tipping them to. Now, they're buying the shoe-shine stands.

Still, those in the business say the risks are minimal.

"When you compare with a lease situation, often ownership is more flexible," says Bruce Sinder, president of Sinvin Realty, which is becoming heavily involved in downtown Manhattan commercial condo sales. "If you sign a 20-year lease, you're obligated to pay that rent. It's not always possible to get out, and you're still responsible for that lease. My contention is that there's lots more flexibility if you own--you can occupy, sell or lease the space."

Actually, there are advantages from both sides--for the seller, as well. "Not every developer wants to stay attached long term to a property," says Sinder, who decided for this reason to turn some of his downtown properties into condos. There are other advantages, too. Many can be sold bare-bones, as an empty box with the purchasers responsible for the "build-out" based on their own tastes and needs. Others give bathrooms and heating and air conditioning systems. Of course for the developer, once they've converted their property and sold the units, they lose any of the appreciation which moves immediately to the buyers.

As a result, some savvy professionals are launching into these kinds of deals--attorneys, accountants, architects, designers and a host of small- and medium-sized businesses. In Manhattan, spaces can range from 800 to tens of thousands of square feet. The prices range from $200 per square foot for a bare-bones loft space to $1,200, of even $2,000, per square foot for prime ground-floor storefronts in the trendy SoHo shopping neighborhood.

Paula Chait, director of Bernstein Real Estate, remembers the dot-com bubble of 2000 in New York's Silicon Alley properties. "When the industry has a downturn, many companies folded completely and had nothing left. But if they owned their space, they always have their bricks and mortar." Indeed, it was often the only asset that was worth anything in the end.

"Of course you don't go into this necessarily to sell the next day and make a killing," she observes. "But while you are there, you reap the benefits of whatever happens to the market."