Last steel beam raised for the emerging downtown plaza

By Robert Whale • May 20, 2009 4:53 pm
Construction workers prepare to hoist the final steel beam to the three-story Auburn Professional Plaza downtown. Atop the beam is a small evergreen
Construction workers prepare to hoist the final steel beam to the three-story Auburn Professional Plaza downtown. Atop the beam is a small evergreen

Watched carefully by operator Dustin Spencer, a grinning Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis pulled the levers on the crane May 14 that hoisted the last steel beam of the Auburn Professional Plaza skyward.

Steelworkers then fitted the white beam, on which was written 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. Jeff Oliphant, president of JLO Washington Enterprises, the project’s developer, said the tree is a traditional steel workers’ symbol that lets everybody know that nobody on the crew died during this dangerous phase of the work.

“Obviously, it’s the last piece of steel going up,” Oliphant said. “It also marks the end of the most dangerous part of the job. Doing the underground work and the steel is very dangerous. In a lot of jobs, there’s frequently fatalities with this type of work. We got through the critical part the safe, and that’s what this ceremony symbolizes.”

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, slightly ahead of schedule.

Lewis noted the significance of having the professional plaza and the Auburn Regional Medical Center’s parking garage and oncology center under construction on the block immediately behind City Hall.

“For the first time in decades, there are cranes in the downtown,” Lewis said. “It’s not the last time by any means, but it’s the first, and we’re glad to have them here … We have two full blocks under construction right now with more to follow.

“Every day that goes by, every bit of new construction brings new workers, new plans, new futures to our community,” Lewis said.

The primary contractor is Sierra Construction Company.