The developers of One River Plaza at the foot of the Purple People Bridge staged a "demolition party" Tuesday to garner publicity for the $140 million twin-tower condominium project that will occupy the site of the former Montgomery Inn Banquet Center on Pete Rose Way downtown.

Milton Dohoney, Cincinnati's city manager, ceremoniously punched a hole in the side of the vacated building with the bucket on a piece of construction equipment as storm clouds threatened future residents, politicians and others looking on.

The banquet center has been closed for months, and demolition is already under way, but the event marked a beginning, of sorts, of physical work on the $140 million development. The first phase - the eastern tower, connected by a walkway to the Purple People Bridge - will include about 80 condos on 9 levels with listed prices ranging from $400,000 to about $2 million. It will also include restaurant and shop space on the plaza level and a parking garage at its base.

The site is on the eastern edge of downtown and abuts Cincinnati's growing parks system along the riverfront. Doug Hine, president of development services for Miller-Valentine Group, said the plaza level will be roughly level with the approach to the Purple People Bridge and the lowest condo units will be 27 feet higher than that.

Montgomery Inn Inc. paid $2.8 million for property that included the northern half of the One River Plaza site, according to Hamilton County real estate records. It completed the site by swapping another parcel across the street with the city of Cincinnati for land to the south that fronts the park. The restaurant company has partnered with Miller-Valentine, which earlier developed Park Place at Lytle, a condo renovation of the former R.L. Polk Co. building nearby on Pike Street.

No date has been set for the start of the first tower, pending further pre-sales, but Hine said he expects to begin by late this year. It's expected to open sometime in the second half of 2009. The developers have sold 28 percent of the initial units - in dollar terms - and need about 50 percent to begin construction, Hine said.