The parking garage will be out of commission - temporarily - during the cleanup and reconstruction of the plaza site. How long the garage is closed and whether or not it will be partially destroyed and rebuilt are engineering issues that haven't yet been addressed.

"It may turn out that it is less expensive and easier to demolish some of the garage at the same time you demolish some of those buildings than it would be to try to preserve it," says Tom Richards, the city's corporation counsel. "The Midtown garage will be there when we're done. We'll need the parking."

The three-level garage has approximately 1,800 parking spaces.

Midtown Plaza will be torn down and a portion of the 8.6-acre site will be sold or leased for Paetec's world headquarters. Cleanup - there are asbestos issues with the site - of the property will happen this year, Richards says, with demolition expected in late 2008 or in 2009.

"Certainly, a lot of it will go with the wrecking ball," he says. "There is some possibility they might implode the tower. Again, we don't know that, and it will be one of the things we'll be working on this year."

The plaza and garage will close when cleanup begins, Richards says - probably around the middle of this year.

"We may close the building sooner, simply because most people will have left or want to leave by then, and it'll no longer be practical to keep it open," he says.

Purchase of the property is moving along and the city is waiting on a pair of appraisals. Federal guidelines say the city has to offer the property owner the greater of the two appraisals, Richards says. City Council will likely vote in February on the dollar figure as well as approve the funding sources that will be used to buy the property.

The city is pursuing eminent domain to acquire Midtown, too, although Richards says that probably won't be necessary. Discussions with Midtown's owners have been positive, he says.

"Given the fact that it's losing a lot of money right now and has been for quite some time, the sooner they get out of there, the better, from their point of view," he says.

At its January 15 meeting, City Council was expected to retain a consultant to prepare a development plan - a general concept of how the property should be used - and an environmental impact statement for the project. The statement should be ready by the end of the year, Richards says.

The state has pledged up to $65 million to tear Midtown down. The money, Richards says, will be included in Governor Eliot Spitzer's proposed budget.

"So far, so good," he says.