CENTER TWP — The new Abie Abraham VA Clinic presents a unique opportunity for economic development on North Duffy Road and the surrounding area, officials say.

The facility is expected to bring thousands of patients, doctors and other people to that area, which would make it a fitting place to build offices for doctors and other medical specialists.

It is also a central location that officials say would be good for companies, government entities or educational institutions to set up offices and offer jobs to college graduates in the area.

“We're thinking beyond Center Township, Butler Township and the city of Butler,” said Center Township Supervisor Ken Frenchak. “This will help regionally with jobs, good-paying white-collar jobs.”

While there is some undeveloped land on North Duffy Road near the VA clinic, Center Township officials are looking to create more frontage and better traffic flow in that area by constructing a new road, which is tentatively being called North Duffy Extension.

North Duffy Extension would be an east/west road connecting North Duffy Road to Lions Road.

The township paid for Gateway Engineers to draw up a design for the road, which has an estimated construction cost of $1.3 million, not including property acquisition. The project would have to be covered through grants or private funding sources.

The township already owns one property, with a vacant house on it, along the route and has been talking with three other property owners, the Harold, Bocci and Young families, who all are supportive of the new road, Frenchak said.

Center Township Supervisor Chairman Ed Latuska said that the connector will help with traffic flow, but the area will still need the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to complete the interchange of Routes 422 and 356 in Butler Township.

Officials met with PennDOT this week to discuss the project, but it has not been funded and the completion date is still unknown.

“We're hoping that by Center Township putting in this road, that is going to be an incentive to the elected officials to complete that. It will show PennDOT that we're serious,” Latuska said.

The township's road design also includes the possibility of a direct connection between North Duffy Extension and the interchange.

Frenchak said that medical and other professional offices would complement the VA, but the area could also be good for educational research facilities, noting that Pittsburgh has become a hub for firms working on robotics and other technology.

A nearby example of this type of business is Future POS, which provides point-of-sale software to businesses, he said. The supervisors earlier this year granted approval for Future POS to build a 15,000 square-foot office building on a Route 8 property just south of the Starlight Drive-In and not far from North Duffy.

What the area does not need is more gas stations and retail businesses, Frenchak said.

“We do not want that. Butler Township has done a good job with that, why steal from them and bring that here,” he said.

Officials are hopeful that one piece of the new North Duffy corridor could be a federal government agency.

That area would be a good fit for the Office of Personnel Management's local operation, which is planning to move out of the Iron Mountain facility in Boyers and into a larger office space somewhere in Butler, Beaver or Lawrence counties.

OPM has 1,200 federal government employees and about 800 contractors at Iron Mountain.

“I think it'd be an excellent place and we would keep 2,000 jobs in Butler County,” Latuska said.

County Commissioner Leslie Osche said that the commissioners were working last year with representatives of the General Services Administration, the agency that would be in charge of leasing a new space for OPM, to identify possible locations in the county.

They were considering several locations within a two-mile radius of the new VA clinic, Osche said. GSA also was looking into the possibility of leasing space at VA Butler Healthcare's New Castle Road campus in Butler Township, she said.

OPM's move seems to be on hold though.

Tom Qualtere, director of communications for Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, said this week that the move has been authorized, but Congress has yet to appropriate any money for the project. It will be Kelly's priority, if OPM moves its offices, to ensure that it stays in the 3rd District, Qualtere said.

Even if OPM doesn't move to Butler or Center townships, there is still a significant need in the county for specialized services such as dialysis or medical imaging, Osche said.

“I think there is a general interest by health care providers in this area and there will be interest surrounding that facility,” she said.

One neighboring development is already partially approved. Brennan Builders of Evans City is planning a residential community called Duffy Highlands for 43.3 acres in Butler and Center townships across the street from the VA clinic. It will contain 110 homes and will be marketed to “empty nesters.” The township earlier this year approved the tentative plan for a residential development there.

Bob Brennan, owner, said last week that he was still working on engineering and getting sewer approvals before submitting plans for the first of four phases to the township for approval.

Phase I will include an unknown number of units, but will be built directly across the street from the new clinic, he said.

He said he hopes to start excavation and land development this winter.