BUTLER TWP — As the 2015 construction season winds down, Butler Township is as busy as ever, continuing a years-long trend of attracting millions of dollars in economic development to several key corridors within its borders.

The formal approval of a new set of businesses at the Butler Crossing Development and site preparation work at a housing development along Route 422 are the latest in what has been a busy year for the municipality's planning commission.

The recently approved developments aren't a revelation — township records show companies filed for building and land development permits valued at more than $21.8 million in 2013 alone — but a continuation. Zoning officer Jessie Hines said the township has enjoyed an active construction market for years.

“It's been pretty progressive for a number of years,” Hines said of economic development in the township. “We've always been active, but I do agree that it's trending upward and accelerating.”

The high-water mark in terms of pure reported project value came in 2009, when developers paid the township $316,083 in building permit and land use fees on nearly 500 projects valued at more than $62 million.

The spike was due mostly to major construction at the campus of Butler Memorial Hospital, but also included construction at Butler Crossing and a shopping plaza off Route 356 that went into construction in 2008.

The plaza is home to three restaurants and more than 220,000-square-feet of retail shops, according to the website of Cedarwood Development, which owns and manages the property.

It is set to grow even bigger after the township's planning commission Monday approved plans to add a new storefront with spaces for five new retailers and one restaurant at the development.

Cedarwood officials did not return messages seeking comment.

That project and an $11 million, eight-building housing development on North Duffy Road by Ohio-based developer Woda are the two most recent developments in a year that has again seen millions of dollars of investment pumped into the township.

A multi-million-dollar shopping center on New Castle Road, Greenwood Plaza, began construction this summer — as did a Dollar General store on Evans City Road and a complete building remodel at the site of Planet Fitness on Route 356, which was completed this spring. Together, those two projects also represent more than $1 million in construction costs according to township records.

Hines and township Commissioner Dave Zarnick said the aggressive investment by national and interstate businesses in new construction can prompt another important type of investment — local businesses expanding their own footprints.

Hines pointed to an ongoing expansion project at Brinkle's Greenhouse on Evans City Road, pegged to cost more than $100,000, as an example.

“It's not just about what new businesses come in,” Hines said.

Zarnick said both types of investment feed off each other.

“I think it's local people seeing how well these businesses are doing and being willing to invest back into the community,” Zarnick said. “They go hand-in-hand.”

In 2014, the township collected $141,045 in fees on 353 projects valued at more than $14.6 million, according to an annual report. Between 2009's high-water mark and now, the township continued to attract tens of millions in development investment, from more than $29 million in 2010 to more than $21 million in 2013.

Hines said there's no specific way to explain the pace or consistency of development because of the broad nature of investment, which can feed on itself as projects prove successful and profitable.

One company alone — Sheetz — has invested nearly $5 million in new construction in the township since 2014, according to township records.

That may seem more impressive on paper than an investment by farm equipment retailer John Deere, which moved into an already-existing shop at 170 Pittsburgh Road in 2014, Hines said, but in his mind both are equally important.

Investment in manufacturing and industrial development aren't absent either. Construction and environmental remediation at the site of a former fertilizer plant at 295 Delwood Road — a project of the Community Development Corporation of Butler County — resulted in manufacturing company Hotline Glass purchasing the site in 2012, said CDC director Ken Raybuck.

Raybuck said he sees the township as a powerhouse of retail growth going forward, but added residential and industrial projects have also been sustained by relatively low tax rates and township officials' willingness to use state programs like Keystone Opportunity Zones — a tax break program — to encourage companies to develop in the area.

“I think it's just a convenient location that takes advantage of infrastructure that's in place,” Raybuck said. “They are trying to make it a very livable township.”

In 2013, on North Duffy Road, an 80-room Holiday Inn represented a $4 million investment — followed by a $3 million senior housing complex on Alameda Road and, the next year, a five-story, $3.5 million Hampton Inn development at 610 Butler Crossing.

“The more growth (we have) that attracts more growth,” Hines said. “It's kind of all relative (and) I think there are a bunch of reasons that contribute to the township being an attractive investment.”

Zarnick pegged some of those as location, proximity to other development and the township's officials and staff.

“I continue to see it (development) being broad going forward,” Zarnick said of the nature of future economic investment.

Both he and Hines said they see Route 68 as prime for future investment, with good location and available land for projects.

“The corridor just continues to get busier, and the township's going to have to adjust to that,” Hines said.