He buys shabby storefront buildings, renovates them and then increases the revenue flow by raising rents.

Just like rents, the price of real estate has been climbing skyward since Mr. Irgang bought his first storefront building in 1981 for $122,000.

That strange designation meant a storefront building on South Main where a bored man in a ranger suit presided over memorabilia of the Gold Rush.

On Easter Sunday 1992, Faith Church held its first public service in a storefront building about two miles (3 km) from the current parish location.

The plate-glass storefront building is a few blocks from the 18th and Vine historic district, the Kansas City where Jazz was born.

Zane cared little about the hunt, though he was glad to hear about a storefront building in Williamsburg with a separate entrance to his bedroom.

And yet, early on, the gallery merged high art with laid-back eccentricity, presenting internationally known avant-garde artists in an intimate, offbeat storefront building.

A storefront church is a church housed in a storefront building.

Another neighborhood presence is Alpha Trading, which owns, among other properties, the storefront building at 219 Montgomery Street, opposite the theater.

"I want to win big," she said, in her campaign office in the second floor of a storefront building on Rockaway Boulevard.