Monday marked the beginning to the end of the nation's first indoor mall. Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy tore a hole into the side of Midtown Plaza's old Wegmans building with a long-arm excavator. That was a ceremonial kick off of the Plaza's demolition phase.

State and local officials, business leaders, law enforcement and Governor David Paterson joined the mayor at the ceremony on Broad Street.

Duffy says asbestos abatement is done, and demolition has begun.

He said this "also marks a change in Rochester. There's an old saying that when one door closes another door opens. Well today one door does close, and a new door begins to open because in a few short months this will be a shovel ready site. It will become the headquarters for PAETEC which will bring between 900 and thousand employees to downtown Rochester and we hope it's the site to many more things."

Last week the Sibley's skyway pedestrian bridge was taken down.

And the Xerox skyway bridge is scheduled to come down late next month, early Novemeber.

The first phase of demolition is expected to be finished by April.