The developers say they are also presenting potential buyers with more choices - the old lofts often came with nothing but plumbing hook-ups.

The old loft was a beehive.

The old loft and building are now incorporated into the inn.

She looked around the old loft.

"The old loft space with its columns and the modern insertions each stay pure and can be appreciated for what they are," he added.

"There aren't many of the old funky lofts left anymore," Ms. White-Johnstone said.

That barn wasn't built yesterday and old floor-boards in old lofts tend to creak.

For about $2 million, give or take a couple of hundred thousand, you can live in Tom's old loft.

Loftlike in feeling, its furniture is urban-familiar, taken from city streets or harvested from their old loft.

Instead they inhabited old commercial lofts illegally, hiding their mattresses in ingenious ways in case a building inspector came to check on the premises.