Economic developments noted
The past year was one of significant announcements that will add to Butler County's economy in the years to come.
Plans for new hotels, a new sports/medicine complex, a new apartment complex, and the completion of a $40 million sewage project will add jobs, income and tax revenue throughout the county.
Here is a look at a number of the bigger economic developments, which made up the most significant news of 2013.
Visitors are expected to have more places to stay after three multimillion dollar hotel projects in the county were announced.Work on the city's 80-room Marriott Springhill Suites hotel, a new Rite Aid pharmacy, and a 225-lot parking garage is set to begin early next year.It is touted as a key project to boost Butler's downtown.An 80-room, four-story Holiday Inn Express is being built at Butler Commons, facing North Duffy Road, in Butler Township.A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the hotel in August.A Hampton Inn Hotel also in Butler Township, is proposed to be built behind the Mikan Volkswagen dealership, which fronts the 300 block of New Castle Road.Both Butler Township projects are expected to be finished by early 2015.
A groundbreaking for a new $74 million VA Butler Healthcare Center was held in April at its Deshon Woods site in Butler Township, but the project was halted in July due to criminal allegations against an official with the project's developer, Westar Development of Aurora, Ohio.But late in the year the VA got bids back from three other developers previously considered for the project. Possible sites included farms in Center and Butler townships, a golf course in Franklin Township, and the 21-acre Deshon Woods site.The VA is expected to award the project to a developer in the spring at the earliest.The new health care center will replace the main building on the VA Butler Healthcare campus on New Castle Road.
Penguins/UPMC facilityThe Pittsburgh Penguins will have a new sports medicine complex and training facility in Cranberry Township.A groundbreaking was held for the 190,000 square-foot facility, called the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, on Oct. 3. The $70 million complex will include two hockey rinks, one for the Penguins and another for the community, and about 50,000 square-feet of medical purpose space.It will be built along Route 228.The complex is expected to open the summer of 2015.
Here are some other notable business events in the past 12 months:PPG Industries will establish a new architectural coatings headquarters in building four of the Cranberry Woods Office Park along Route 228. The 120,000-square-foot complex will bring 500 jobs to the township, all of which already exist elsewhere in the company.American Eagle announced it will close its distribution center in the Thorn Hill Industrial Park and move it to Hazelton, Luzerne County. The move will take 200 jobs with it. The center in Thorn Hill is expected to discontinue operations by summer 2015.The Butler Area Sewer Authority fulfilled an order from the state Department of Environmental Protection, ending seven years of penalizing state restrictions.Perhaps the most notable restriction placed was a limit on the number of new sewer connections the authority could issue each year. The authority spent $40 million on seven new sewage tanks to eliminate wet weather sewage overflows since 2006.The tanks, which can hold an estimated combined 22 million gallons of sewage, were completed early this year. The authority now is able to issue more new sewer connectionsWestinghouse Electric in Cranberry Township this year cut several hundred jobs worldwide due to a slowdown in the nuclear business. The company has more than 14,000 employees globally and about 6,000 in Western Pennsylvania.NexTier Bank and Farmers & Merchants Bank of Western PA announced the two would merge to form one regional bank with nearly $1 billion in assets. The two sides expect to close the deal in the first quarter of 2014. The new bank will keep the NexTier Bank name and will have 24 locations in Armstrong, Butler and Allegheny counties.The “BOOM & a Blast” fireworks show at Cooper's Lake Campground in August brought in more than $4 million to the county economy. More than 55,000 people came to see the weeklong convention hosted by the Pyrotechnics Guild International, said Jack Cohen, president of the tourism and convention bureau.McKesson Corp. agreed to sell McKesson Automation, its Cranberry Woods-based pharmacy automation program business, to Francisco Partners of San Francisco for an undisclosed price. The business has 780 employees with 480 of those in Cranberry Woods and in a nearby production facility on Pennwood Place in the Thorn Hill Industrial Park.Wendell August Forge opened a new $8 million, 52,000-square-foot headquarters along Route 208 in Springfield Township, Mercer County, in October. It replaces the original building, which burned down in 2010. The company has about 110 workers.Stockholders of rue 21, a leading specialty clothing retailer based in the Thorn Hill Industrial Park in Cranberry and Marshall townships, approved in September a $1.1 billion deal and takeover by the Apax Partners.A new 201 unit apartment complex is to be built in Slippery Rock Township.Campus Crest, a Charlotte, N.C., company, plans to develop the complex, which will have 603 beds, along Harmony Road between Keister Road and Route 173.The apartments are scheduled to open by the start of the 2014-15 academic year at Slippery Rock University, according to the developer.
