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Miami Beach's Old South Shore Hospital Imploded

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A Miami Beach eyesore came tumbling down.

The old South Shore Hospital was imploded Tuesday morning.

It's a building that has stood for more than a decade in the area of Alton Road and the McArthur Causeway.

Residents had asked for a quick demolition.

The blast, at 10:14 a.m., lasted about 15 seconds, the structure's walls crumbled to the ground and formed a pile of rubble.

Demolition experts used 235 pounds of explosives strapped to pillars in 400 different location on four floors to bring all 10 stories down.

"It's a big, big day. The day was like waking up at five in the morning, making sure there was nobody the building, and making sure all the cars got off the street," Russel Galbut, the developer behind the project to remake the space.

Despite a short delay Miami Mayor Dan Gelber, the honorary detonator of the explosives, said it went just as planned.

"Today we took a really important step in the renaissance of this neighborhood. For over a decade we've had a shell of a building on a deserted lot, it went down today in a very successful and safe implosion. Tomorrow we'll begin building a three-acre park on the same land," he said.

On the three, Galbut plans to build a 44 story condominium with retail space.

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