Demolition begins on Five Seasons ballroom downtown (WITH GALLERY)

The thunder in downtown Cedar Rapids that started on schedule at 8 a.m. today didn't come from the sky.

Demolition crews began the noisy work of taking down the Five Seasons Hotel ballroom over Third Street NE as the first step in demolishing it, the skywalk alongside of it and everything in the block next to it but The Roosevelt apartments.

What is coming down will make way for the city's new convention center, slated to open in early 2013.

City and downtown officials held a news conference at 8 a.m. to kick off the demolition.

Mayor Ron Corbett said the construction the new convention center – which includes an upgrade to the U.S. Cellular Center arena and a renovation of the Five Seasons Hotel next door – will put more than 300 construction workers to work and hundreds of others once the building is up and operating. The new convention center, he added, is expected to bring 300,000 visitors to the city a year.

“We are building, better, stronger and smarter,” Corbett said. “The economic impact of this facility is huge.

“This is a sign that we are moving forward and getting things done. You can actually feel the momentum in this community.”

Dave Zinser, owner of demolition contractor D.W. Zinser Co. of Walford, Iowa, was supervising the first pieces of the demolition from the news conference site. He said the machine workhorse for the demolition is a “high-reach” excavator with a 91-foot reach, which he called the only one of its kind in Iowa and which he said can do work with less vibration to nearby buildings. He purchased the excavator for $858,000 plus tax for this job and others, he reported.

Crews won't use explosives on the demolition, though a crane will swing a wrecking ball to help with some of the work, which will be complete by August, Zinser said.

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Corbett noted that April is Intellectual Disabilities Month, and he used the Monday-morning news conference to note that Zinser Co. and Frew Nations Group, the city's consulting project manager, had donated $1,000 to the Arc of East Central Iowa, an agency that works with people with intellectual and related disabilities.

One of those people, 22-year-old Collin Frost, stood next to Corbett and gave the demolition crew the command by radio to “Begin the demolition.”

Corbett noted that the demolition and then the construction will change the downtown skyline and be visible for all who pass by on Interstate 380 next to the project site.

One of the City Council's concerns has  been that the demolition will make the rundown exterior of the back side of The Roosevelt apartments all the more easy to see.

City Manager Jeff Pomeranz noted Monday that the building's owner, Sherman Associates Inc. of Minneapolis, is putting together a plan to improve the look of the side of The Roosevelt that faces Interstate 380.