More than 100 people crowded under tents Wednesday afternoon to take in the rain-soaked groundbreaking of the Auburn Professional Plaza.

The 68,000-square foot development will be a three-story building and include a City Hall annex and KeyBank branch, replacing the block of taverns and other buildings east of City Hall.

City officials marked the event in the parking lot north of the old Mecca Tavern at First and North Division with speeches and the turning of dirt. Mayor Pete Lewis then climbed into an excavator and punched the first hole in the Cascade Loan and Sporting Goods building on First Street Northeast.

“… One of the things we are talking about today is Auburn under construction,” Lewis said.

The main floor of the building will open onto East Main Street and First Street Northeast, offering retail andoffice space.

At more than 25,300 square feet, the City Hall Annex, an answer to the city’s need for additional space, will take up roughly half the second floor. The third floor will offer professional and medical offices. A second-story sky bridge over North Division Street will connect the steel-girded, brick-faced building to City Hall.

Parking for city employees will be provided at the garage Auburn Regional Medical Center is now building north of City Hall. The city and the hospital have agreed to share the garage.

KeyBank’s new ground-floor, branch office on the corner of East Main Street and Auburn Avenue will anchor the building on the east, replacing the longtime branch at nearby 15 Auburn Avenue.

“This modern and convenient office will allow us to serve Auburn clients with the latest in banking technology, a system we call Teller 21,” said Lysa Barbano, area retail leader for KeyBank in the Auburn area. “It will increase the efficiency and security in every transaction we handle at the branch.”

Barbano said the new branch will offer flat-screen televisions to help inform and entertain clients, as well as six teller stations and three private offices to ensure customer confidentiality. A new three-lane, remote drive-through will include an ATM and two video accessible tellers. Parking will be available for customers from a new lot adjacent to the entry door to the new branch.

Jeff Oliphant, president of Auburn Professional Plaza LLC, was responsible for the earlier remodel of the old Massey’s grocery store building – later the Family Fun Center – on East Main into the Auburn Justice Center, which now houses the Auburn Municipal Court and the Auburn Police Department.

“Oliphant and his partners have done outstanding work in our community,” Lewis said. “They have worked on several projects and their commitment to moving forward in the face of multiple situations has been tremendous.”

Auburn Professional Plaza is slated for completion by the fall or winter of 2009.

The primary contractor will be Sierra Construction Company.