Watched carefully by operator Dustin Spencer, a grinning Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis pulled the levers on the crane Thursday afternoon that hoisted the last steel beam of the Auburn Professional Plaza skyward.

Then steelworkers fitted the white beam, emblazoned with the city’s slogan, “More than You Imagined,” and bearing the signatures of dozens of people who had come for the traditional topping-off ceremony, into place on a corner of the third floor.

At that, the crowd below cheered.

Affixed to the top of the beam was a small evergreen, symbolizing the fact that nobody on the crew died during this dangerous phase of the work, said Jeff Oliphant, president of JLO Washington Enterprises, the project’s developer.

Rising on the site of the former Tavern Row between North Division and Auburn Avenue, the 88,000-square-foot, steel-girded, medical and professional office building will be anchored by a new KeyBank building on the east end. The first floor will be taken up by restaurant and retail space. The City of Auburn will lease the entire second floor and part of the third. Medical and professional offices also will occupy the third floor.

Oliphant said work on the three-story building should be completed by November.

The primary contractor is Sierra Construction Company.