For decades, Sam Kroungold watched the comings and goings at Manayunk's Propper Bros. furniture store from his office, from a desk perched in a mezzanine overlooking the cavernous showroom.

These days, the view is quite different, but Kroungold still has a birds-eye view of activity at the 40,000 square-foot Levering Street landmark, busy with activity again two years after he went out of the furniture business.

The mezzanine has been enclosed as part of an ongoing $3 million renovation, so Kroungold's desk now sits next to a wall and the view comes from a monitor showing security camera feeds. Instead of the chatter of customers browsing for furniture, the background noise in Kroungold's office now comes from the massive heating system for the hot yoga studio downstairs.

Not that he's complaining.