A new boutique apartment building with a quirky history, the Creswell, 1220 Huron Road, is set to open with 80 luxury one- and two-bedroom apartments in Playhouse Square.

Move in dates will commence in September on the first six floors. Units on floor seven will be available in October. Floors eight through 11 are scheduled to start coming online in November, with all the apartments slated for completion by year's end. Thus far, 54 have been released to the market, and they are going fast.

"We have 44 hard reservations out of 80 units," says Jon Mavrakis, managing director of CITIROC Real Estate Company, who is representing the project partners, the Slyman Group and the Dalad Group.

Units will range from 773- to 1,162-square feet with rents from $1,275 to $1,920, although rents for the 11^th floor two-bedrooms will top $2,000. North-facing apartments on the second floor will feature historic leaded windows.

Construction started in January. Vocon is the architect on the project, which was awarded a $3.55 million state historic tax credit in 2013, and Dalad Construction is the contractor. The total cost is expected to be about $16 million.

The 1920 Creswell was originally constructed as a garage for roadsters your great-great granddad zipped around in. Per the Aug. 15, 1920 Cleveland Plain Dealer (PD): "The south side of Huron Road at E. 12^th Street is being improved with an eleven-story fireproof concrete structure with brick and terra cotta trimming that will house 800 cars." The Creswell was also built to last, with a footing of concrete piles that extended down 50 feet on account of quicksand (per the PD on Nov. 7, 1920).

"The subfloors are all about two-foot-thick concrete," says Mavrakis of the building's solid construction. "It's very quiet."

Hence, residents of the Creswell will not need to worry much about hearing the goings-on of their upstairs neighbors, which may include the four-footed variety. Two pets up to thirty pounds each will be allowed per apartment.

While the building has endured these 95 years, the garage went out of business in 1923, after which the structure was quickly reborn as the Carnegie Hall Building and was home to a host of businesses in the entertainment industry and local legends such as the Cleveland Recording Company and Wyse Advertising. The style back then? Just plain cool.

The new Creswell will have plenty of cool of its own, with a 1,000-square-foot fitness center and a rooftop deck that is scheduled to open in spring of 2016. Parking will be available at the Halle Garage for an additional charge. The first floor will have a 4,000-square-foot restaurant, a tenant for which has yet to be placed.

"We're engaging some local operators," says Mavrakis. "We have a lot of interested people"

He adds that one of the best parts of bringing these unique and modern apartments to a vintage building in Playhouse Square is the storied surroundings.

"We feel this is the best neighborhood in the city."