KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Months of preparation work culminated Sunday morning into a giant cloud of dust and a giant pile of rubble.
Demolition crews imploded the old Park Place Hotel just before 8 a.m. Sunday morning.
The building, near interstate 435 and Front Street was 9 stories tall and transitioned ownership and names since it was built in 1974. It opened as the Breckenridge Inn in 1975 and was also a Howard Johnson and Ramada Inn. It closed in 2016.
With 500 pounds of dynamite, it only took seconds to bring down Sunday morning.
Among those watching was Cameron Tecce, who was watching with friends and family after a seven month deployment to Iraq.
“It’s a great time. He’s finally back. He’s safe. Family’s all together. We’re going to watch a building blow up,” said Kevin Tecce, Cameron’s father.
“Back being with the family is nice, considering I don’t get to do it as often,” said Cameron Tecce, who has been in the Army for two years.
The Tecce family laughed that the Fourth of July started early this year.
"You get to start today blowing stuff up and for the next few days blowing up more stuff. Fireworks all week,” said Kevin Tecce.
Dozens of others lined up with phones and video recorders to capture the demolition of the 328-room hotel near.
The city worked since last August to find the owner, so KC could avoid the roughly $750,000 demolition bill.
“It had to come down. We’ve had issues with vagrants and looters and homeless getting in there,” explained city spokesperson John Baccala.
A man was also found dead in an elevator shaft.
Baccala said they would still work to find the owner to buy the property outright, so a new development could go in its place.
The Tecce family just said a toast to the land’s future and to have their soldier back home with them to watch.
“Different kind of tailgating. Starting with coffee, moving to the beer just as the building goes up,” said Kevin Tecce.
The stairwell in one of the towers still remained standing.
Construction crews with Industrial Salvage and Wrecking will go in with tractor hoes, hammers and other equipment to take it down. That could take up to 60 days to have everything clear.
WATCH THE IMPLOSION:
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