ORLANDO, Fla. — The city of Orlando on Monday will take a major step forward in its plans to build a permanent Pulse memorial, starting the process of removing artifacts from inside the former nightclub to be used in the memorial.

What You Need To Know

Orlando Facilities Division workers will begin taking items from inside Pulse on Monday

Items such as chandeliers, the bar top and posters will be taken to an environmentally controlled warehouse

Site clearing, including the Pulse sign, is expected to start in March or April, according to city officials

Construction of the memorial is scheduled to begin in fall 2026

The facilities division will carefully remove items such as chandeliers, the bar top, posters and other interior items, and they will be taken to an environmentally controlled warehouse. That process is expected to take a while.

Plans have not been finalized for what artifacts will be part of the permanent memorial, but the items are being preserved during the design and construction phase. A list of items being removed and stored can be found at pulseorlando.org.

Once the removal is complete, city workers will begin to remove the Pulse sign. Site clearing is expected to start in March or April, according to city officials.

Construction of the memorial is scheduled to begin in fall 2026, but there is a lot of work to be finished between now and then, city officials said.

“For me, it is better they demolish the site because it is going to be healing for us little by little,” said Jorshua Hernandez Carrion, who still has a bullet in his side from that night 9.5 years ago. “But it is time to do the memorial.”

Carrion said he plans to be back in the summer to mark 10 years since the tragedy and eventually when the memorial is completed, which is expected to be in late 2027.

On June 12, 2016, Forty-nine people died and 53 others were injured when gunman Omar Mateen opened fire during a Latin night at the nightclub. At the time, it was the worst mass shooting in United States history. Mateen was shot dead in a gun battle with police just outside the nightclub.

Since then, city and county leaders, survivors, victims’ families and other members of the community have gone through a protracted negotiation on the design plans and construction for a memorial to the victims.