WAYNE — A wrecking crew has started to demolish Wayne Hills Mall.

Built in 1974 at the intersection of Berdan Avenue and Hamburg Turnpike, the mall is coming down to make room for a new ShopRite supermarket and other retail outlets.

James DuBroff, director of operations for Highground Industrial, the Mahwah-based firm handling the demolition, said Monday that it will take up to 2½ months for his crew to raze the entire 103,800-square-foot mall.

"I don't foresee any issues at all," DuBroff said. "But it's a big job — a lot of concrete."

Men operating an excavator and small bulldozers were at the site on Monday, picking up and pushing debris at the south end of the mall, which had two gaping holes in its façade.

DuBroff said his company also was responsible for asbestos remediation at the mall.

Highground has performed work in the township before, having demolished the former Sears Auto Center at Willowbrook Mall, where a 12-screen movie theater now is under construction.

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The Planning Board approved redevelopment of the 39-acre mall tract, owned by Levco Associates, in February 2016. An existing ShopRite, anchoring Plaza Square shopping center, will close and move 2 miles west.

RELATED:Demolition of Wayne Hills Mall is 'imminent.' Here's what will go there

The board approved an amended site plan for the project late last month.

The most significant change to the plan was a reduction of the proposed shopping plaza by 10,101 square feet.

ShopRite will be 74,554 square feet, and the other stores — on the east side of the shopping plaza — will be a total of 5,593 square feet.

The amended plan also incorporated an extra loading dock, for a total of nine.

The Burlington department store will remain at the mall. Levco's property also features Dunkin' Donuts, Firehouse Subs, Kmart, LA Fitness and a former Toys R Us store.

Talk of the mall's potential redevelopment began as early as 2006, when the county commissioned an urban planner to study how to reinvigorate the dying galleria.

Over the next five years, the mall dropped to four tenants.

Approval of Levco's plan was challenged in court by Ahold Delhaize, the Netherlands-based parent company of Giant-Landover and Stop & Shop supermarkets. There is a Stop & Shop across the street from the mall, at Preakness shopping center.

A judge upheld the board's decision in September 2017.

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com

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