Washington's swath of old auto showrooms, a magnet for car shoppers before World War II, is hopping again -- not with customers in search of wheels but with construction crews carving out loft condominiums. Nearby, old repair shops and garages have been customized into chic living spaces.

More than 600 upscale residences are completed, under construction or planned for an area just west of Logan Circle, many in buildings erected early last century to sell, service or fix cars.

The projects are reshaping the area defined by 14th, Church, P and 15th streets -- once the apex of the District's Auto Row but known in recent decades for street crime and vacant storefronts.

"I remember when this street was drug dealers, prostitutes," said Merrick Malone, a principal with Metropolis Development Co., which has four projects in the area.

Michael Clayman, 59, grew up in the District. He moved to Church Street last year from Montgomery County, where he raised his children. For most of his life, he said, his new neighborhood "was a place we generally avoided."

Now, Caribou Coffee operates a busy cafe at 14th Street and Rhode Island Avenue, and Starbucks serves lattes from the first floor of a new building around the corner on P Street.

A large art gallery has opened in a 1920s building that started out as a Hudson Motor Co. showroom. A gutted Nash showroom will be rebuilt into luxury condos dubbed "Phaeton on 14th" -- after the vintage auto of the 1920s and 1930s, not the super-deluxe sedan introduced by Volkswagen this year.

Three auto showrooms -- originally for Mott Motors, Hurley Motor Co., and Wardman Motors -- are being reborn as the Lofts 14 and Lofts 14 Two, Metropolis projects whose 122 condominiums won't be completed until next fall but sold out months ago, some for more than $1 million.

Developers say that the 14-foot ceilings, expansive windows and architectural flourishes of the former auto palaces are ideal for loft conversions -- and unusual for Washington, known more for rowhouses than industrial buildings.

As early as 1917, the showrooms were a presence on 14th Street, a busy commercial corridor served by one of the city's first streetcar lines. Their grand facades and fine interiors were designed to convey a sense of elegance and luxury to would-be motorists. Side streets, such as P and Church, featured more basic buildings, mostly garages and auto-parts stores.

Unlike U Street, a hub of African American commerce and culture, the area around 14th and P was mostly white, with some black-owned businesses and homes.

Many showrooms changed hands during the Great Depression, but Auto Row survived through the middle of the century. Most dealerships then followed residents to the suburbs, helping to launch a period of decline that was accelerated by the riots after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968.

As fires raged near U Street, the National Guard set up in the 1400 block of P Street. One former body shop owner said its presence kept nearby buildings intact.

Seeds of rebirth were planted in 1980, when the Studio Theatre took a risk on the neighborhood and located in a former hot-dog cart warehouse at 1401 Church St., now part of a Metropolis project. The theater moved across the street to another rehabbed building in 1987 and recently expanded that site to incorporate an old showroom and garage.

At 14th and U, construction of the Reeves Municipal Center and the opening of Metro's Green Line added momentum. On residential side streets, urban pioneers were restoring blighted Victorian rowhouses and moving in. They established the Greater 14th Street Historic District to protect old buildings from demolition.

In 2000, residents recruited Whole Foods and CVS to a stretch of P Street that once housed LP Stewart and Studebaker dealerships. It didn't take long for the new stores to attract enough people to crowd their aisles. Developers noticed. Restaurants and furniture boutiques opened, and hundreds of apartments rose near U Street and south of Logan Circle.

Along P, Church and 14th, buildings created for cars nearly a century earlier began to be redesigned for people.

Four years ago, at least six auto body and repair shops operated on those blocks, catering to downtown commuters when the showrooms and their customers were long gone. One remains.

Auto Express was bought by Studio Theater. Raygoza's Auto Repair will be demolished for a 28-unit condo project. Two garages went vacant during all the construction; the owner of the properties said he has leased one to a beauty salon and is looking for another retail or office tenant. He envisions condos there one day.

At 1445 Church St., shiny red lettering spells Rainbow Auto Body & Painting. But the business moved away in 2001, after 75 years, when the founder's grandchildren sold the building to a developer for $2 million. Rainbow Lofts opened last month, attracting buyers who loved the exposed brick, open spaces and vintage photos in the lobby.

"It's an authentic loft," said Rebecca Menes, 43. "Something that, for once, we didn't borrow from another country." Another resident, Gregory Buja, 26, said the building's location near Logan Circle was key. "That's where all my friends are," he said. "I am just very excited about how it's changing."

The renaissance has brought a host of new retailers -- Reincarnations furniture store, for example, took over a shabby storefront that for years housed a check-cashing post. Some older places -- Best-In Liquors, next to Whole Foods, and Vegas Lounge, across the street -- have improved their buildings and adjusted their merchandise for more upscale patrons.

But owners of a few properties and businesses have refused to upgrade or sell. The result is a scattering of 14th Street's scruffy past amid the buffed-up buildings reshaping its present.

Carl's Barbershop and the Mid-City Fish Market, for example, are housed in faded, Queen Anne-style buildings that date to 1885. The owners, brothers Joseph and Aaron Richman, inherited the properties from their parents, who ran a pharmacy in the market space. They say they want to continue renting the storefronts to modest businesses and the upstairs apartments to people of limited means.

"My father was not CVS. He was a small independent," Joseph Richman said. "The people there who we're renting to, they're small, middle-class working people, and we want to keep it that way."

Jay Levy, owner of Sam's Pawnbrokers, refused offers from Metropolis to buy his shop, a former bakery built in 1875. He says he is tickled when newcomers check out the merchandise that desperation has brought through his door.

The eclectic mix appeals to Mike Watson, 30, who moved into Rainbow Lofts last month. He routinely breakfasts on an egg sandwich from the fish carryout that costs less than the Starbucks coffee he buys to wash it down.

"They are businesses that have established this community far before any of us even thought about living in this area," he said. "We owe them a certain amount of respect."

Those developing the corridor see some value in such establishments but are frustrated by businesses that don't seem interested in joining the renaissance. Scott Pomeroy, who directs the 14th & U Main Street Initiative, has failed to get two wholesale shops near P Street to join an annual sidewalk sale. He has secured funds for facade improvements and is searching for a balance between improving 14th Street and celebrating what has been there.

Malone said he appreciates the appeal of the fish market, directly across from his most expensive project. But he would like the store's facade painted and the sidewalk free of trash.

"I don't believe in antiseptic neighborhoods," Malone said. "But even with the funk, there's got to be some character."