NEW ORLEANS – The Hard Rock Hotel demolition was scheduled to continue today – tearing down two buildings on Canal Street which are in the red zone. One of those buildings is the Alamo Theater. 

Now, the process is being postponed until at least tomorrow. WGNO is told the demolition is still on schedule. 

More than seven months have passed since The Hard Rock Hotel collapsed which injured several and killed three. Almost two weeks ago, the demolition began. 

“As of right now, we’ve gotten our demolition permit from the city. We have demolished the first building in what’s called the red zone” The Attorney for Hard Rock developer 1031 Canal LLC, Stephen Dwyer told us this afternoon. “The red zone are the buildings behind the hotel that have  to be demolished in order to allow the large cranes to get in the proper position.”

On May 15th, a post office on Iberville was demolished. The other two are theaters on Canal Street which are expected to come down soon. “By the end of this week, those buildings on Canal will be gone. Next week, we will start working on taking down the tower crane that is leaning over the building over Canal Street.”

Within the next 30 days, the demolition for the Hard rock Hotel will begin. “We should have the remains also removed from the building” Dwyer said.  

The demolition will cost over 8.5 million dollars. The 1031 Canal Development LLC is footing the bill. The NOFD was able to keep this process moving along by giving the green light to taking down the buildings. “So, it’s taken some time but the good thing is, the demolition process is up and running and is going to be finished as we say.”

WGNO is told the demolition for the Hard Rock Hotel building will be completed between late September to early October.