The graffiti-covered exterior of a building on the eastern edge of SoHo is entering its final weeks as a notable public canvas for street art, with the owner set to begin an exterior overhaul in preparation for the building’s conversion to expensive condominiums.

The five-story building is a relic of the downtown arts corridor from 10 or 15 years ago, and was mostly dormant for decades, housing just one artist until 2003, when it was sold to Lachlan Murdoch, son of press and broadcast mogul Rupert Murdoch, for a reported $5.25 million. Mr. Murdoch flipped it last year for $12 million to a developer, Florida-based Elias Cummings Development, according to property records. Soon after the purchase, the new owners held a well-attended graffiti art show during which street artists were let loose inside the building — something of a last hurrah for those that have long been fascinated by the building.

Elias Cummings Development is transforming the property into three spacious condos, according to an owner, Caroline Cummings, marking the former horse stable’s belated arrival into the modern day market of SoHo and surroundings, where high-end retail stores and pricey loft apartments fill the low-rise buildings that line the narrow streets.

The 119-year-old structure at 11 Spring St. has been under construction on its interior for about four months, with completion expected in the next 12 to 16 months, Ms. Cummings said. Within weeks, scaffolding is expected to go up alongside the building, shielding the graffiti from public view before it is slowly removed.

Inside the building, the three planned units include a two-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot apartment that will occupy an entire floor, a 4,600-square-foot penthouse with a terrace, and a three-story, 4,200-square-foot apartment with a garage. Ms. Cummings said she expects prices to range between $6 million and $18 million.

The building ‘s renaissance comes after years of mystifying passersby. It was known to people in the neighborhood simply as the “candle building,” because of the constant dim light that came from single candles that burned in its windows. An artist who designed theater sets, John Simpson, owned the building between 1974 and 2003.

“The lights were always on — nobody knew anything about it,” the director of the SoHo Alliance, Sean Sweeney, said. “I used to love to go by that building when SoHo was getting really developed 15 years ago, because it was just deserted.”

A photographer of street art who was recently taking pictures of the building, Walter Wlodarczyk, said as the building’s time as a canvas runs thin, it is still a hot spot for graffiti artists. “I expected them after the show to just come out and buff it,” Mr. Wlodarczyk said of the developers.

While there are still a few artistic landlords in the neighborhood who don’t mind graffiti on the sides of their buildings, Mr. Wlodarczyk said, the number of spaces that are fair game for street art is shrinking as the neighborhood becomes increasingly economically vibrant.

While artists may feel an attachment to the layers of multicolored paint that coat brick building, preservationists tend to accept the idea that graffiti is generally not an aspect of a structure that is realistic to save.

“We don’t ever look to landmark graffiti — you can’t do that even if you wanted to,” the director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Andrew Berman, said.

In an ideal world, Mr. Berman added, ” buildings could be renovated and updated and wonderfully maintained, and still keep some of those layers of history on them.”