By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — The long-delayed demolition of the Deutsche Bank building is finally drawing to a close, though Tuesday night's snowstorm could set the project back a few days.
All that remains of the former 41-story building, which was heavily damaged on 9/11, is part of the concrete slab of the second floor, the steel columns that support it and some underground structures, said the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which owns the building.
After a week’s delay because of the recent blizzard, the building will be entirely gone by the end of January, Josh Rosenbloom, director of city operations for the LMDC, told Community Board 1 on Monday.
"We do have another snowstorm coming," Rosenbloom added. "That could affect this further. Hopefully it won’t be as bad — we’ll see."
Assuming the current schedule holds, the tower crane that has hovered over the site for more than five years will come down next week, a three-day operation that will require 18 to 20 flatbed trucks to remove the pieces, Rosenbloom said.
"In the skyline of construction downtown, [the crane] is one that no one wanted to see," Rosenbloom said, alluding to the negative memories of 9/11 that the building evoked, along with memories of a 2007 fire there that killed two firefighters.
"The fact that it’s going to be coming down next week, I think, is very positive," he said.
The sidewalk sheds that have ringed the blocks around the building are also coming down over the next week.
Once the building has been demolished, the city will search the northern portion of the site for human remains from 9/11, and then the Port Authority will begin to construct a belowground parking garage and vehicle screening center there for the new World Trade Center towers.
Rosenbloom said he expects the LMDC to turn the Deutsche site over to the Port Authority by the middle of February.
