Blasting specialist eyed to spearhead convention centre development.
Columbia Development wants to tap the same Maryland firm that demolished the Seattle Kingdome and Las Vegas’ Landmark Hotel to implode the 11-story Wellington Annex on Howard Street to make way for the new downtown convention center.
The demolition plan — which a company official said would need to happen next Thursday — is contingent on city approval.
Until Tuesday, neither city nor state officials would publicly discuss the implosion plan.
Columbia President Joseph Nicolla said he has been in on-again, off-again talks for months to have Controlled Demolition Inc. collapse the vacant building onto itself — a move that he said will limit downtown disruption, arguably be safer than clawing the building down and push the project back on schedule.
The building and a neighboring parking garage are being cleared of asbestos and other hazardous materials but remain standing with both the state and Albany Convention Center Authority eager to begin construction on the $66.5 million Albany Capital Center as soon as next month.
“The right way to get this building down is by implosion, not what we had to do at the Wellington,” Nicolla said, referring to the six-week piecemeal demolition of all but the facade of the long-vacant hotel on nearby State Street. “I’m going to be out there fooling around for three weeks, four weeks with claws and jackhammers and wrecking balls, and I’m going to create more noise, more havoc. I’m going to be shutting down roads just like we did for the Wellington.”
The paperwork for the demolition permit began in March but was not formally submitted until last Thursday. That application was filed by Jackson Demolition Services of Schenectady, but Nicolla said the implosion plan is contingent on CDI.
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