Throughout 2023, Butler County saw an onslaught of new businesses, long-standing companies made transitions, a health system merger came to fruition and infrastructure projects began, continued and were completed.

Here are the top Butler County business stories from 2023:

A merger between Butler Health System and Excela Health was finalized Jan. 1 2023, officially creating a new health system serving Western Pennsylvania that would later be named Independence Health System.

The new health system was said to employ approximately 7,300 people and have more than 1,000 physicians and practitioners who serve a population of about 750,000 between Butler Memorial Hospital, Clarion Hospital, Frick Hospital, Latrobe Hospital and Westmoreland Hospital.

Early January brought conversation surrounding broadband expansion in underserved areas of the county, particularly in the north.

This issue was brought to light with regards to the housing market. It was reported about 5% of housing sold by the Heidi & Sadler Priest Team at eXp Realty in Butler might not have high-speed internet options.

The lack of high-speed internet can deter specific clients, said Butler Realtor Sadler Priest.

"Some people work from home,“ he said. ”I've had them say 'I need high-speed, blazing internet.'"

Talk of broadband and issues around it continued throughout the year. In February, it was announced Pennsylvania would receive part of $42.5 billion in federal moneys set aside to help expand broadband internet access to underserved areas.

March saw businesses return or move into new locations within Butler County.

In the midst of trying to relaunch the Butler Art Center after an unexpected closure over the winter, Terry Hagan, center past president, met with Terry Kaiserman, who wanted to launch a Butler nonprofit.

Kaiserman said his idea to start a coffee company that employs people with disabilities could be a good partner to the art center.

Butler Coffee Lab debuted March 24 at Butler Art Center’s grand reopening gallery reception at 344 S. Main St.

March also saw M@C Discount announce its move to the site of the former Friedman's Fresh Market within the Greater Butler Mart in Butler Township.

Later in June, M@C Discount announced it would be expanding its business in the Greater Butler Mart even further with a “Yinz Binz” location, which has an online auction component. But the main difference from other branches is that this one offers merchandise for immediate purchase.

In early April, the McDonald's at the Greater Butler Mart was torn down and rebuilt to speed up and enhance its customers' experience.

"The back of the house was not set up to serve customers in the most-efficient way," said Meghan Sweeney, owner operator of the McDonald's at that time.

The restaurant reopened in the 3,915-square-foot facility July 25 and featured an updated design and a modern layout with digital kiosks, table service, free Wi-Fi, touch-screen games for children, two drive-thru lanes and patio seating.

Also in April, Emerson, a St. Louis-headquartered technology and software company, announced its power and water solutions business would relocate to Cranberry Woods Business Park in Cranberry Township.

That power and water solutions business occupies part of a 375,000-square-foot energy-efficient facility with plans to renovate and modernize the space.

"It's exciting that Emerson decided to make Cranberry its home," township manager Dan Santoro said. "They have a large corporate presence in the region. The space was previously occupied by Westinghouse."

Due to increasing demand for its products worldwide, Bayer opened a new $11 million, 60,000-square-foot raw materials hub in May at 150 Victory Road outside Saxonburg.

"The Hub" was built to address current internal and external market trends, such as the rising global demand for the company's radiology products by doubling its capacity for storing raw materials supplies, according to Alfred Merz, senior vice president of product supply medical device operations at Bayer.

In June, Univest Financial Corporation, based out of Souderton, Pa., opened a branch location in Cranberry Township.

Univest entered a contested banking market in Cranberry Township, along the likes of Keybank, Citizens Bank, First Commonwealth Bank, PNC Bank, NexTier Bank and others.

In early June, South College, a multi-campus institution founded in Knoxville, Tenn., announced the completion of renovations at its campus in Cranberry Township.

"Our goal is to give students opportunities and to stiffen the workforce in the surrounding area," said Anne Petrella, South College Pittsburgh campus president. "We are super excited to be in Butler County and to get our campus up and running. We have now expanded to eight locations across six states.“

Later in mid-July, it was announced that Specialized Staffing & Industry Recruiters was purchased by Adam Whitaker and Bill Best, who also own CHS Solutions in Monroeville.

The new ownership will help Butler-based Specialized Staffing work with CHS Solutions to help employers in many industries, such as manufacturing, find the right employees for their companies, Whitaker said.

"We are looking forward to this opportunity with Specialized Staffing to broaden our services into that Butler market," Whitaker said. "We see this acquisition as helping to provide solutions for the same customer base from the administrative side with Specialized to the labor side with CHS across a wider geography."

In early August, Steamfitters Local 449 in Harmony, along with four other registered pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs, received grant awards totaling more than $397,000 from the state, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

Ken Broadbent, business manager at Steamfitters, said the grant money will be used for marketing to help bring in more apprentices and share information regarding what being a Steamfitter is all about.

"It's a diversity grant to help us attract more diversity into the Steamfitters apprenticeship," Broadbent said.

In late August, J.M. Beatty Furniture and Mattress in Washington Township announced the addition of a new 50,000-square-foot showroom.

Fourth-generation owner Chad Beatty said the new location, which opened Aug. 26, is at the site of the former Trader Horn at 2760 Oneida Valley Road, and will serve as a showroom for the business's mattress and bedroom showcases.

"We put a couple million dollars into renovating it," Beatty said. "It's a lot different from what the old Trader Horn was. Those buildings were rough. We had to do siding, the roof, the windows — practically everything there got redone."

In honor of National Manufacturing Day in early October, Cranberry Township-based MSA Safety hosted an open house at 1000 Cranberry Woods Drive.

MSA’s products are used around the world and integrate a combination of electronics, mechanical systems and advanced materials to protect users against hazardous or life-threatening situations.

"I think it's helpful to shine a light on manufacturing because it's harder to attract younger generations to manufacturing," said Anne Herman, vice president of manufacturing strategy. "There is still an image that it's dirty and dangerous.“

Toward the end of October, Bryan and Marina Frenchak, who are on the verge of revitalizing one of Butler's most storied buildings in the Penn Theater with the hopes of elevating the city's Main Street, were honored for their efforts with the 20th Community Champion Award from the Butler County Chamber of Commerce during a luncheon in Founders Hall at Butler County Community College.

Their roughly $1.5 million project is well underway.

"With everything that's going on with the chamber and other businesses for so long on Main Street, the timing just happened to be right," Bryan said. "We are just thankful to be a part of it."

In mid-November, Santoro shared that the Cranberry Mall in Cranberry Township will be undergoing some changes.

Petco will be leaving the mall completely, Santoro said, while Dollar Tree is moving a few spots down from its current location. Hobby Lobby will be taking the place of Petco and Dollar Tree.

"Hobby Lobby is taking the remainder of the space based on all the moves that have happened there," Santoro said.

Also coming to the mall soon is Value City Furniture, which will be moving into the location vacated by Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Then, just in time to ring in the New Year, Giant Eagle announced Dec. 20 a headquarters deal with McKnight Realty Partners with plans to move its corporate offices to Cranberry Woods Business Park in the spring of 2024.

Previously, the 100,000-square-foot building in Cranberry Township was occupied by FedEx.

The grocery store giant announced the administrative team "will operate in a hybrid model with specific days spent in the office and others either working in a remote environment or spending time in our stores and distribution centers."

"We believe that in-person collaboration is vital to grow our business and forge meaningful connections with our customers and each other," said Giant Eagle CEO Bill Artman. "Our new headquarters will provide a variety of working and meeting spaces that will foster teamwork and creativity to help us continue to think like our customers, anticipating their needs and delivering solutions to make their lives easier."