Westar Development Co. is no longer seeking approval to divert $3.2 million in property taxes for the new VA Butler Healthcare center it building in Butler Township.

The company made that announcement late Friday in a news release after it had the official groundbreaking Friday morning on the $75 million project,

Westar of Aurora, Ohio, had wanted to have those taxes diverted from the Butler School District, Butler County and Butler Township to help pay for a $2.5 million underground drainage system, including a stormwater retention tank, at the Deshon Woods site on Route 68.

It would have done so for the first eight years of its 20-year lease under a tax increment financing (TIF) plan.

The TIF proposal would have allowed for real estate tax revenues to repay $3.2 million in TIF bonds for infrastructure improvements.

The new center will be just south of the current VA facility. It will be leased by the VA from Westar for $7.6 million annually.

The 168,000-square-foot building will have three floors and is expected to more efficiently provide outpatient services.

Construction is expected to be completed in the summer of 2014 and the facility is to open in 2015.