The Spang building on Brugh Avenue has a new owner.

Family Pathways on Main Street in Butler has bought the building, according to executive director Elan Welter Lewis.

This agency provides counseling and support for families involved with custody or separation issues, children with relative care givers and adoptive families. It has 26 employees and will add four more once the move is made, Welter Lewis said.

The building has been vacant since January 2003, when the engineering department of Spang was relocated to the RIDC Park on Route 28 in O'Hara Township, Allegheny County.

Welter Lewis said the vacant building provides a great opportunity for her agency. Currently, the agency rents two offices on Main Street, but quickly is running out of room to expand its services, Welter Lewis said.

"We needed room to grow," she said. "It provides us with a lot of opportunity and resources for the future."

Welter Lewis said the Spang building will be renamed Monarch Place and all programs will be relocated there by April 26.

The agency will occupy the upper two floors of the building when it first moves there. Those floors are accessible from the Brugh Street entrance.

The remaining portions of the building will undergo minor remodeling later this year once the agency better determines how it would like to use the space, Welter Lewis said.

Programs offered by the group include:

Transitions - treatment and visitation services

Generations - kinship services

Growing together - therapeutic foster care

Forever family - special needs adoption

Services are expected to continue without interruption once the move is made.

The building has about 42,000 square feet, and there is an additional 4.65 acres with parking and grounds, Welter Lewis said.

The organization searched for a new site for more than two years, she said. The decision to buy the building was made because it had the space the agency was looking for and allowed for the possibility of expansion.

Plans to expand are in the works, Welter Lewis said.

A public open house will be scheduled later, she said.

For information on Family Pathways, call 724-284-9440.