"It's an opportunity to lock in your occupancy costs and enjoy the tax benefits that come from ownership," Becker tells GlobeSt.com, in explaining why he believes locals are finally embracing a structure that has been largely missing from the commercial real estate landscape in Greater Boston. Becker offers a number of reasons why the format finally seems to be catching on, the most obvious being a record run-up of office rents during the past 18 months fueled by tight supply and new landlords who paid big prices for buildings and now need to pass on those costs.

"People are getting sticker shock in a big way," relays Becker, who notes that buyers of the six units already trading at the Cooper Building in Charlestown all hailed from Boston. Hunneman was called in by owner Davis Marcus Partners last summer to determine what could be done with the three-story historic structure whose tenant had recently departed. "We felt the parts were more valuable than the whole, and were able to sell them on the (condo) concept," says Becker, who was engaged at the time by Florida-based Bayview Financial to market 185 Devonshire St.'s units.

One Cooper Building unit was purchased soon after the marketing campaign began, and five more have traded since, including three last week that closed after an aggressive push to land prospective buyers. "We had a lot of activity from that," says Becker, who is handling the Charlestown assignment with NAI Hunneman associate David Cooney. The second quarter surge filled more than 15,000 sf in the 36,000-sf building, including a 7,000-sf unit purchased by Trevi Icos Corp. Presently at 273 South St. in Boston, Trevi Icos was represented by Equitable Real Estate Solutions principal Mark Carangelo in the transaction.