A long-vacant gas station at Oregon Pike and Roseville Road might be replaced with a two-story medical office building next year.

Ponessa Manual Therapy, now on Crown Avenue, would move to the new structure and rename itself Ponessa Medical Massage.

Bringing a dramatic change to the highly visible corner, the new building would be 3,700 square feet, the size of a large house.

The owner and developer of the new complex would be Tom Ponessa. His wife, Donna, owns Ponessa Manual Therapy.

Ponessa said Friday that, pending Manheim Township approval, he hopes to break ground next month on the project, estimated to cost more than $600,000.

The seven-employee business would move to the new location in May.

"The township has been great to work with. They're anxious to see something nice happen there, too," Ponessa said.

Documents filed with the township show the new building would be built at the rear of the half-acre tract.

Sixteen parking spaces would be in the front. Landscaping would go around the perimeter of the property.

Donna Ponessa said the move from the leased 1,100-square-foot space would have numerous advantages.

The practice's therapy rooms would double from four to eight, helping the practice meet a growing demand for its services.

"More and more, people are seeing the medical benefits of massage therapy," said Donna Ponessa.

With the extra space, her practice also would be able to add a Jacuzzi and whirlpool.

"It's been a dream, to have my own facility designed the way I want," she said.

Donna Ponessa said her practice's massage differs from the "spa type," in that it usually treats injuries and illnesses.

About 75 percent of its patients are referred by physicians. Her practice also gives massages to new mothers at Women & Babies Hospital.

Practicing for 15 years, Donna Ponessa recently was named to the state massage-therapist licensing board by Gov. Ed Rendell.

Ponessa is founder of T.W. Ponessa & Associates, a mental health counseling company with 450 employees operating in five counties.

T.W. Ponessa's main office, at 2141 Oregon Pike, is a few blocks away from the project site at 1864 Oregon Pike, idle for about five years.

Through another firm, Triple J Associates, Ponessa bought the tract in September for $265,000 from Robert W. Hilliker, courthouse records show.

Hilliker had considered several ideas for filling the void, including renovating the empty gas station into a coffee shop, "It's a Grind."

Submitted to the township in 2005, the plan spent several years in the approval process but was never built.

A medical massage center is a permitted use under the tract's B-2 (business) zoning, according to documents filed with the township.

In October, the project won variances from the township zoning hearing board for the location of parking on the tract.

A subdivision and land development plan went before the township planners that month as well.

The planners are expected to decide whether to recommend approval of the plan at their meeting next Wednesday.

The plan next would go before the township commissioners for a final decision in December.

Paul Risk Associates is the project contractor, RETTEW the engineering firm and Lewis & Associates its architect.

tmekeel@lnpnews.com