Daniell Barnett is happy the group that is turning Zelienople's Strand Theater into a performing arts center will tear down the building where she has had her beauty shop for nearly eight years.

"I'm going to have a new space, and I have a landlord who wants to do things to make things better for my business," Barnett said. "They've been good neighbors."

At the end of February, the Strand Initiative, the volunteer group that is turning the 90-year-old movie house into a full-fledged theater, bought the adjacent building at 121 N. Main St. for $115,000.

The building houses Shear Paradise Hair and Tanning, which Barnett owns with husband Charles, and an apartment upstairs, said Ron Carter, president of the Strand Initiative.

The upstairs tenant intends to move in October because of a job change, so the apartment isn't an issue, Carter said.

Finding space for Barnett's shop, however, has been a priority since discussions about buying the building began about a year ago, he added.

"This is a community project. We want to make it pleasant for everybody," he said. "We don't want to displace anyone. We don't want customers wondering where their beauty shop went."

Carter's group needs the additional space so it can move the entire stage from the theater's west wall to the north wall. When the newly acquired space is rebuilt, it will expand the area behind the curtain and contain dressing rooms, an office and, perhaps, a small studio apartment. Professional touring groups will need the extra space, Carter said.

Efforts to save the old theater started in 2001 and began in earnest when the initiative bought the building in the summer of 2002.

Since then, the group has held a steady stream of fund-raisers, pursued state and federal grants, and sought donations from individual and corporate sponsors.

As a result, it was able to turn the concession stand into a small gift shop, fix the theater's crumbling facade and, most recently, replace the dilapidated marquee.

So far, the group has raised $91,000 of the $400,000 it needs to come up with by June if it wants to collect $600,000 in grants, Carter said.

Money to buy the building next door had already been budgeted, he said.

Demolition of the building probably won't begin until October, Carter said, so his group and Barnett have some time to solidify an agreement.

Leasing some space to generate income has always been the group's intent, Carter said.

Plans call for deepening the theater's earthen-floor basement, sealing it and joining it with the basement of the building the group just bought.

The wide-open space with 10-foot ceilings can then be split and leased, Carter said. A karate or dance school would be a perfect fit, he said.

Getting Barnett set up is the first order of business, though, Carter added.

"The customers were getting a little nervous, thinking we were getting put out," Barnett said. "We're not going anywhere. The Strand Initiative wants to work with me and put me into a new place. They want to keep me as a tenant."

Barnett said it hasn't been difficult to support the group's efforts.

"I think it's wonderful that somebody is willing to do something with this corner and fix it and make it look beautiful," she said.