NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - The Louisiana state facilities office has set Nov. 20 for the implosion of the long-shuttered Grand Palace Hotel to make way for the new $1.1 billion University Medical Center. The 18-story, 1,032-room hotel on the corner of Canal Street and South Claiborne Avenue never reopened following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina flood. Taking down the building is one of the last significant pre-construction tasks as state contractor prepares to build the successor to the Charity Hospital, another downtown building that has remained closed since Katrina.

State facilities chief Jerry Jones shared details of the demolition as he boasted of an ambitious construction timeline Thursday in a presentation to the UMC governing board. "You might want to come watch this one for fun," he said.

Jones said his office selected the day in part because it is the New Orleans Saints bye week. The implosion will require the closure of area thoroughfares, including Interstate 10. Contractors already have begun asbestos abatement in preparation for the implosion. The hotel occupies the southeast corner of 34 acres slated for the campus, which is expected to be fully operational by early 2015. Cleaning up the rubble is slated to continue through February 2012, Jones said.

Besides razing Palace Hotel, other contractors will move the historic McDonogh No. 11 School that sits in the middle of the footprint and continue driving piles in preparation for construction.

The campus, according to state plans, eventually will have three patient towers along Canal Street; a diagnostics and treatment building, which will include a level-one trauma center; an ambulatory care building for physicians' clinics; two parking decks and some surface parking. 

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