SUMMIT TWP — It stands like a beacon at the crossroads of Routes 38, 68 and 422.

For those traveling west on Route 422, the Morgan II building is an unmistakable sign that Butler is nearby.

For long-time Butler businessman William Morgan, the medical arts-office building is his phoenix, rising from the ashes of the fire that destroyed the Morgan Management Center in 2003.

The management center, which was in the renovated Spaide Shirt Co. building on Brugh Avenue in Butler, burned to the ground without any injuries on June 27, 2003. That 85-year-old building had been home to 22 doctors and their practices.

Almost immediately after the fire, Morgan began construction on Morgan II. Yes, it was out of the city, but actually it is closer to Butler Memorial Hospital, which he said would attract doctors to the site.

The four-story, 52,000-square-foot building was constructed with the medical community in mind, offering state-of-the-art features such as:

• $250,000 double-wide elevators to designed to accommodate medical equipment and gurneys

• Private entrances, restroom facilities, and individual atmospheric controls in each suite

• Hospital-grade, in-wall lines for gas deliver, such as oxygen

• Advanced fire protection/sprinkler system;

• Heated sidewalks for patients/customer safety

• More than 400 parking spaces with many being handicapped accessible.

Morgan said he has seven tenants, including Dr. Marvin Baker, Dr. Samer Azouz, Robert Martini and Martini Financial Services, the Central Blood Bank, Dr. George Lloyd, Baltimore Life and the Morgan Management offices.

"We are strategically located to the hospital," Morgan said, adding that the location gives his office an edge in attracting doctors as other medical arts buildings are under construction in the Butler area.

"We have between eight and 10 others who are considering our building, but who are waiting to see what the hospital will do," he said, referring to a study the Butler Memorial Hospital Board is considering in which outpatient services would move to a separate facility.

"Everyone is waiting to see what will happen with the hospital before they commit someplace," Morgan said.

He understands why doctors are waiting on the hospital's decision, but the delay is effecting his business.

A life-long entrepreneur, he started Morgan Management in 1953 when he bought Dight's Diner then at the corner of South Washington and West Jefferson streets in Butler. The diner was the first establishment in Morgan's restaurant chain in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The next restaurant was Morgan's Wonder Boy Drive-In on North Main Street in the Bon Aire Plaza.

Morgan, who has always had his eye on up-and-coming business trends, became the fifth Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise holder in the United States in 1955. The drive-in chain expanded to eventually include 52 locations.

By 1969 Morgan decided to expand his business horizons by opening the first automated car wash in Butler County on Route 8 in Center Township, adding a second location on New Castle Road seven years later.

Morgan Management also operated 50 refrigerated tractor-trailers that hauled mushrooms from Moonlight Mushroom, owned a recreational vehicle dealership and contracted Sylex Homes in the county.

By 1970, Morgan wanted to try his hand at retirement, and sold the restaurant chain. That lasted about two years with Morgan returning to business in 1972 with the purchase of the former Spaide Shirt Factory building on Brugh Avenue in Butler.

He also owns and operates the Morgan Center on East Diamond Street in Butler and the Eastland Plaza, the Eastland Business Center and the former Morgan's Eastland Diner, which is where Morgan II has been built.

Any other business buildings in Morgan's future? "No, no," Morgan said in his no nonsense way. "Then again, you never know, but I don't think so."