When talking about real estate at a social gathering, the question inevitably enters the conversional swirl: â??Heard of any new conversions lately?â?? To Manhattanites, the term â??conversionâ?? has a number of connotations, the most important being â??Can I cut a good deal?â??

My first exposure to the term â??conversionâ?? was during the mid-1980â?