ST. CLAIRSVILLE – The Ohio Valley Mall is seeing rapid expansion, with several new businesses recently being opened and several others currently under construction.

Buckle Inc. is a popular clothing retailer that owns 450 stores in 44 states. The latest Buckle store opened on July 18 at the Ohio Valley Mall.

“The opening was phenomenal,” said Ohio Valley Mall Marketing Director Candi Noble-Greathouse. “Opening week was excellent. Buckle is getting a great welcome from shoppers in the Ohio Valley, and they always have a lot of staff working.”

Construction has begun on the new BW3 restaurant on the back side of the mall area, near the new Residence Inn by Marriott hotel.

“BW3 will likely open in late October, according to their 120-day usual plan. They began construction in mid-July,” said Greathouse.

The BW3 is currently located on Frontage Road at the Ohio Valley Plaza and is preparing for transition from that location to the new location at the Ohio Valley Mall.

“We will be at this location until the beginning of October, and then we will start transitioning to the new building at that time,” said Alita Kucera, general manager of the Ohio Valley Plaza BW3. “The new building will have an outdoor patio area, with garage doors that we can open, weather permitting. There will be more TVs, and there will be 30 taps instead of the 20 we have now. There are a whole lot of exciting changes we are looking forward to.”

Another new building under construction at the Ohio Valley Mall will house five separate businesses. Greathouse said three leases have been signed so far — with Aspen Dental, 5-Star Nutrition and Sport Clips. The new building stands in the place of the Bonanza restaurant that closed in 2009 and sat vacant for seven years.

“The main building should be finished after Labor Day, and then the individual businesses will take over and do their own construction projects,” said Greathouse.

Another new business that already had a “soft opening” and will have a grand opening in the next few weeks is ICR Equipment Rental, Sales and Supply. The store is located in the same strip as H.H. Gregg and is headquartered in Bellaire. ICR Manager Rich Hathaway said the business provides equipment rental and supplies for the pipeline and mining industries.

“We sell work clothes, FR clothing, boots and much more to come yet – that’s why we haven’t had our grand opening. We have a lot of rental equipment. We also make highway signs and hydraulic hose, and we thread pipe up to 6 inches. We also are the only local retailer of Proto Industrial Tools. They are on the high end, but we are the only one around that carries them. Business has been good so far, even without having a grand opening. ICR stands for Industrial, Commercial, Residential,” Hathaway said.