Eat'n Park is working on plans to demolish and rebuild its restaurant on New Castle Road in Butler Township.

Eat'n Park is working on plans to demolish and rebuild its restaurant on New Castle Road in Butler Township.

The restaurant at 214 New Castle Road, which opened in 1971, will be among the group of other restaurants the company has torn down and rebuilt in the past several years, said Kevin O'Connell of Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, the parent company of Eat'n Park that is based in Homestead, Allegheny County.

“We're in the process of finalizing plans with our landlord up there on New Castle Road. We're planning on starting later this year,” O'Connell said.

He said the company started evaluating its restaurants five years ago and has done extensive renovations to six of them in the past couple years in addition to demolishing and rebuilding restaurants on Banksville Road, Peters Township, Avalon and Bethel Park.

“Starting from scratch is a better option in some cases,” O'Connell said.

Rebuilding allows the company to use the latest kitchen technology and building designs.

“We think the Butler (Township) location has a ton of opportunity. It's been a great location for a number of years and we'd like to get a new one up there. This is kind of a new program. We've been in business 70 years. This is our 70th anniversary,” he said.

The Eat'n Parks on New Castle Road and at the Clearview Mall, which opened in 1982, were updated with pickup windows a few years ago.

“We've received positive response from the community in those locations,” O'Connell said.

He said plans for the rebuild will be submitted to the township in about four weeks.

Eat'n Park will at least need a demolition permit, building permit and land development plan for the project, said Jesse Hines, township zoning officer.

Other zoning permits might be needed depending on project plans, which haven't been submitted, he said.

“I anticipate them making an application in a couple months,” Hines said.

The strip of New Castle Road where several restaurants including Eat'n Park are being rebuilt will have a new look when all the work is done.

Burger King recently built a new restaurant at 208 New Castle Road, adjacent to its previous one, and Kentucky Fried Chicken is building a new restaurant at 218 New Castle Road, just a few doors west of its current location.

“That whole strip will be redeveloped,” Hines said.