What's going on in the Halle Building?

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - If you've driven by and seen the scaffolding on the outside, it is nothing compared to what's going inside the Halle Building on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.

Cleveland 19 got an exclusive look at the renovation of the iconic department store and the addition of residential space.

All kinds of building trades have been busy for months inside the Halle Building.

The goal is to open the space up so people don't feel like they're living in a box, while not changing the character of the place.  A key to that is opening up the floors.

Thick concrete was cut away to create a central atrium.

Inside an apartment you'd think you were in any new development in the suburbs with one exception.

The great views from near ceiling to floor windows.

As you'd expect there are marbled bathrooms, in master bedroom suites.

"We've added you know new features like double ovens, beverage systems in every unit,"K & D Vice President Matt Driggs said.

There is a Halle history in common spaces.

One of the keys to the renovation is restoration.

The Halle Building sign is just the beginning of bringing the building's past alive.

"We found things like old shoe shine stands, a grand piano, display cases which we are having all refinished and put onto different floors with different Halle memorabilia so when you're walking into the floors you're seeing all this modern and all this luxury but you're also tying it back into what the building was what the history was," Driggs said.

Rents are well under $2 a foot, for the 122 units.  The place opens in August.

Seven of 12 penthouses are gone and they won't be ready till December.

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