BUFFALO TWP — The seeds sown for commercial development in the township may bud later this year.

A new project in the works is a proposed industrial park off Ekastown Road.

Property owner Eric Smith wants to build the industrial park on 16 acres near the Sarver Road intersection.

“We just would extend Contour Drive back further,” he said.

Smith plans to sell or lease land to businesses interested in the site.

He has the resources for building construction but needs utility service stretched roughly 3,000 feet to the site.

“We just need water and sewage to make it work,” Smith said.

Since the Municipal Authority of Buffalo Township cannot afford to extend the pipes, Smith is working with the Community Development Corporation of Butler County to get funding.

Smith, the owner of the South Pike Square shopping center off Route 356, still is trying to fill the empty storefronts there as well as bring in a fast-food restaurant to be built in the parking lot.

He said one fast-food chain has made an offer while another is waiting in the wings.

Smith agrees with township Supervisor Dan Przybylek that commercial growth is the way to spur economic development.

Przybylek believes his efforts to promote new business will bear fruit in 2012, his last year in office.

He said the largest project — a proposed hotel, restaurant and business incubator at the Routes 356 and 28 interchange — still is on tap.

Although one developer backed away from the plan, Przybylek said another may move forward.

“If we get this moving, it will have a positive impact,” he said.

Another hotel could be built on nearly 3 acres behind the park-and-ride on the other side of Route 356.

However, that project hasn't moved forward since discussion early last year.

Przybylek said the developer, Cabot Resources Corp., hasn't backed out, but hasn't committed to the plan either.

One project that won't be realized is a Dollar General being built next to the Yellow Jacket Square shopping center along Route 356.

“They weren't satisfied with the PennDOT requirements,” Przybylek said.

Smith said Przybylek is the right man for the job of encouraging commercial growth.

“He's the ball of fire behind it all,” Smith said.