The owner of a former bank building in front of Independence Mall is expected to demolish the structure soon, a broker said Friday.

Built in the 1970s and most recently serving as a TD Bank, the building at 3512 Oleander Drive has proven to be a hindrance in the process of marketing the property for lease, said Steve Warwick, a partner in commercial real estate firm Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Co. and the listing agent for the property.

With the building gone, the company will market the pad for a ground lease, Warwick said.

“To convert it from a bank building to a restaurant or even retail was going to be quite expensive,” he said, and most prospects looking at the property, which sits next to the Panera Bread in front of the mall, were restaurants.

The ceilings, for example, in the 4,700-square-foot building are not typically as high as what a commercial ceiling would be today, he said.

TD Bank closed the office in 2013 to move activities there to an existing branch at 802 S. College Road.

Warwick said the property owner, The Oleander Company Inc., has received a lot of offers for the property, but the firm wants to make sure that, whoever the next tenant turns out to be, the business will enhance the Oleander Drive corridor.

In May 2015, the company submitted site plans to the city of Wilmington that would have involved renovating the building for a Noodles & Company restaurant, but those plans are currently listed as inactive on the city’s project tracking website.