BUTLER TWP — Four years have passed since the former Butler Mall got a face-lift and changed its identity.

Some familiar stores are gone. The Montgomery Ward and Ames stores have been demolished.

In its place is the Butler Commons shopping center, which has resurrected the shopping area.

"The old mall was dead," said Joseph Hasychak, chairman of the township commissioners. "If we hadn't made the change, it'd be boarded up today, anyway."

He was a commissioner when the township helped ensure the Cedarwood Development Corp. of Akron, Ohio, would buy the property and renovate and expand it.

Target bought the former Montgomery Ward, along with 34 others nationwide, after the company filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

The new 126,000-square-foot Target is slightly larger than the former 109,000-square-foot Ward store.

Target employs about 150 full- and part-time employees.

A Wal-Mart supercenter also is there.

Cedarwood demolished, reconfigured and built new retail space to create the Butler Commons.

Chuck Novak, Cedarwood property manager, said the construction took three to four months, during which "quite a few" stores left in favor of the Clearview Mall.

The only stores that were untouched by the construction are the Dollar General, Hair Specialist, and the Butler Memorial Hospital Outpatient Services, said Novak.

He said the old stores were gutted and only the roof and vertical columns were retained.

The development changed it from a covered mall with a shared commons area to a strip mall with a long line of stores.

Novak said the size of the commons is about 86,000 square feet. There are 19 occupied stores, with two vacant spaces, he said. There also are several out buildings.

The old Butler Mall, completed in 1973, was 218,000 square feet and had 25 retail stores.

Cedarwood spokesman Randy Young said the company owns all of the property and leases it to the stores.

Novak said he was not sure if lease rates have gone up since the change, but it was "fairly easy" to fill the space at the shopping area.

"It has been very successful for the merchants," said Novak. "The ones who stayed saw a dramatic increase to their business."

Getting the development off the ground was no easy process. It involved several contentious public hearings, where many residents sought to block developmental approval.

They were concerned about an increase in traffic on the already-busy New Castle Road.

The township required Cedarwood pay for a number of changes to the road to help reduce traffic backups.

John Stokes, the township zoning officer, said four turning lanes were added, which helped traffic flow from the eastbound and westbound directions.

Additionally, the area of Route 356 and North Duffy Road adjacent to the shopping center was widened.

A traffic signal was also added at the back entrance to the commons at the intersection of Duffy Road and Seneca Drive, said Stokes.

"They put a lot of money into it and made positive changes," Stokes said.

For its part, the township adjusted the timing of the traffic light system by the mall to help maximize the flow of traffic.

Richard Anderson of Westbrook Drive was against the development several years ago because of the additional traffic it would bring.

He said the adjustments to the roads have helped, but could do more.

"Leaving (his house) I see people going 60 mph to 80 mph at times," said Anderson. "It's only a matter of time until someone gets hurt."

Stokes said developers also built a pond to handle the stormwater runoff for the entire area.

The former mall had nothing like that in place because it was built before the township had stormwater management regulations in place, said Stokes.

He said the placement of the pond benefits residents of the entire development area in both function and appearance.

"Now we don't have stormwater flooding downstream like we did before and we didn't put the Wal-Mart right by their houses," said Stokes.

He said some residents still complain about hearing trucks at Wal-Mart late at night.

Before it became the Butler Mall, the site was the Charles Robinson farm and Butler airport.

Montgomery Ward, built in 1968, was the first store there. In 1973, the mall itself opened with half a dozen shops.

Expansion may be in the works for Butler Commons, after commissioners in December voted to rezone the land owned by Applied Test Services at the corner of New Castle and Hindman roads to commercial.

At the time, Randall Hake, director of development for Cedarwood, said if ultimately approved, the shopping center would expand to the west of the current retail area and would demolish the ATS building.

He said it would next develop a series of out parcels and a shopping strip mall, with an anchor tenant.

David Fair, ATS vice president and general manager, said the company would have to find the right location for all its equipment first. This would likely take at least a year, he said.

ATS is a 40-year-old company with 54 employees who manufacture material testing equipment, furnaces, and offer field service and calibration for furnaces.

Fair said the desire of the company is to stay in Butler.