The Dunedin City Council was notified yesterday afternoon the rear wall had started to bow, and that appeared to spell the end for the historic building, Dunedin City Council chief building control officer Neil McLeod said.
The council would get another engineer to peer review the advice about the wall, but: ''I'm hoping to be able to issue a demolition consent fairly soon,'' McLeod said.
Two separate sections of the building collapsed on January 12, and parapets fell on to the roof, causing it to collapse inwards on to the second storey.
The rear wall has lost one or two metres at the top.
There were calls since the collapse for the building to be saved, with Dunedin archivist Dr David Murray starting a petition, that yesterday had 232 online signatures.
But consent for the demolition would be signed as soon as the owner could confirm the work could be done without affecting neighbouring buildings.
There was some concern yesterday the N&ES Paterson Ltd building next door may have a ''party wall''. That issue was ''back in the owner's court'', Mr McLeod said.
Mr McLeod said there was already a demolition consent request from the owner, and that would be ''expedited''.
