GARY: Next on "Start Up," we head to New Kensington, Pennsylvania, to meet up with Mike Malcanas, the owner of Olde Town Overhaul, a company on a mission to revive downtown New Kensington and open doors for new business owners.

All of this and more is next on "Start Up."

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♪ The first time you made a sale online was also the first time you heard of a town named... MAN: Dinosaur.

We just got an order from Dinosaur, Colorado.

MAN: No way!

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♪ My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country continues to recover, small business owners everywhere are doing all they can to keep their dream alive.

So we set out for our tenth consecutive season to talk with a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they've learned to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves.

♪ This is "Start Up."

♪ GARY: New Kensington, known locally as "New Ken," is situated along the Allegheny River, 18 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

New Ken is the birthplace of aluminum, developed by Alcoa, the global leader in aluminum production.

With Alcoa's departure from downtown New Ken, along with the decline of the local steel industry, New Ken has experienced an economic shock similar to many rust belt communities across America.

Today, I'm heading to New Kensington, Pennsylvania, to meet up with Mike Malcanas, the owner of Olde Town Overhaul, a company on a mission to revive their downtown.

From what I know, Mike has self financed this entire venture, and I can't wait to hear his story and hear from some of the small business owners that are part of this grand revival, including Jamie, the owner of Sweet Alchemy, a vegan bakery, and Brian and Brian, the owners of Las Hachas, an axe-throwing business.

♪ What's your primary business?

What do you do?

MIKE: My primary business is I'm an insulation contractor.

Insulate 8- to 10,000 apartment buildings up and down the East Coast.

GARY: How did that whole insulation business start?

MIKE: My father was an industrial insulation contractor, and he manufactured insulation.

And I worked with him.

It was very hard and complicated and low margin.

I didn't like it, and I spent a long time busting my knuckles trying to make it work.

It did okay.

I did, you know, succeed a little while, but I learned that I just didn't want to do that for long.

So I explored other options, and I stumbled across contracting.

And then I had, you know, a fair amount of success in this contracting.

The great recession hit... GARY: Yeah.

MIKE: ...and I was forced to pick an arm.

I had to chop an arm off.

GARY: Sure.

MIKE: And at that point, contracting apartments was the new, better option, and I, you know, cancelled off, you know, all... everything had to do with the manufacturing that my dad had started and... GARY: Just focused on that.

So you're not really running the family business anymore.

That's ended, and you've picked up your own sort of sector, focus, and doing your own thing.

MIKE: It was the hardest, most painful decision I ever made because my father had passed away.

It was the last, like, connection I had to my father.

So I stewed just endlessly, you know, making that decision because it felt like I was basically cutting my father out of my life.

Because that was, like, the part of the business that he had given me.

GARY: But you kind of had to do that for yourself.

Made sense.

I mean, there weren't a lot of options during the recession.

MIKE: Any other business, any other person I would have been talking to, right, I would have told them to cut that business loose, right?

Like, a hundred times over.

GARY: It was the emotion.

MIKE: But because I was so emotionally connected to my father's business, I just, I couldn't do it.

GARY: What is your interest in New Kensington?

Where did your interest in the city begin?

MIKE: My father's original business was here in New Kensington.

GARY: Okay, alright.

MIKE: At the Schreiber Industrial Park, which is right along the river.

When I, you know, first started working for my father here in New Kensington, right, it was close your eyes and get to the warehouse, right?

That was what, you know, so I never really had a great, you know, attachment to New Ken.

One day, driving back into town when the town was deserted and it was a sunny day with the sun shining on the buildings, you're like, hmm, I just kind of noticed, like, the facades of the buildings from the 1920s, and they were all glimmering.

And to be honest, there was nobody on the road.

I had just like walked out of the car and I was just like, look at, I mean, look at these buildings, they're fantastic.

I mean, like...

This building in particular was the first one we bought.

GARY: Was that the moment that you decided, I'm gonna do something here?

MIKE: Yes.

I looked at this building, and the facade is just spectacular.

I just said to myself, "What would it cost to replicate this facade?"

GARY: Astronomical.

MIKE: Today?

You couldn't.

But there was a "for sale" sign.

It was like, you know, the price was next to nothing.

GARY: Really?

MIKE: Right?

I just went like, "Oh, my God.

It's like, okay."

GARY: What year was this?

MIKE: 2019.

GARY: 2019?

MIKE: Right.

GARY: Okay, so really new.

All of this is really new.

MIKE: Right.

We had spent a bunch of years buying and renovating foreclosed homes, right?

So we bought 100 foreclosed homes, fixed them up.

We had a lot of fun with this dirty old building, you know, fix-up thing, right?

So that was fun.

But then that kind of came to an end.

And then I said, "Wait, well, maybe I could fix up an old town."

♪ GARY: Give me a little bit of history on this beautiful city.

TOM: A little bit of history.

Well, first of all, we are the aluminum city.

Alcoa was founded here.

Our downtown had six department stores, five movie theaters... GARY: Wow.

Booming.

TOM: Absolutely amazing.

Specialty stores.

Anything you can think of, we had here in the city of New Kensington.

In the late sixties, early seventies, the Alcoa started moving south for their work, um, and we sort of lost that.

And so over the last, you know, 30 years or so, 40 years, we've been trying to rebuild.

And here we are.

We are rebuilding.

GARY: How do you do that?

What's step one to repopulate and bring a city back up?

TOM: Well, you know, you sort of start with a plan.

You start with a comprehensive plan.

You bring in people who are, whose heart is in the city.

The people who stayed here still say, "I'm from New Kensington."

They're proud to say that.

And then you have people who come into town, see the potential and want to make it better, like Mike and Michelle.

GARY: How important is it for them to have the belief that they have in the city and do what they do?

TOM: Oh, it's incredibly important.

They've just done this tremendous job of figuring out things like niches, you know, what people are thinking about, what people are wanting to do in bigger cities.

One of the things we're most proud of is not only is it, you know, businesses and people coming downtown, but so many of the businesses are minority and female owned.

And we're really, really proud of that.

♪ GARY: What were your thoughts initially?

MICHELLE: I have to roll with the punches all the time.

So whatever crazy idea he comes up with, I'm the person that makes it happen.

So, you know, he comes to me and says, you know, "I want to renovate a town, let's do it."

I was like, "Okay, I mean, I'm on board with whatever crazy ideas you do."

GARY: What was step one?

MICHELLE: Step one was buying five or ten buildings first.

And then we really didn't have like a plan in place until he decided to put this brewery in as the cornerstone of the community.

MIKE: You know, if you're gonna sell Cadillacs, I got to drive a Cadillac, right?

It's like, if I'm gonna convince people to come into a town that's Deadsville you know, and I'm trying to revitalize it, I mean, show people that you can start a business here and run it.

I don't know anything about a restaurant business.

I've never ran a restaurant business.

GARY: You can hire people who do.

MIKE: Right.

I just said, hey, I'm gonna show people that you can start a business in town.

And when I told people I was starting a brewery in downtown New Kensington in 2019, everybody looked at me like, "You have to be insane.

There's just Styrofoam cups blowing down the middle of the street.

There's nobody there.

Why would you do that?"

The brewery really makes the difference in the whole entire plan, right?

I mean, just... Because bringing people downtown, having a place to gather, having a reason to be here, I knew that that was the only way to, you know, act as a catalyst to bring people here.

GARY: You had bought 10, 12.

How many total buildings do you own?

MIKE: I mean, now I'm up to like, 30-some buildings.

GARY: 30-some buildings in New Ken?

MIKE: Yeah.

And some are multiple-unit buildings.

So it's 45-some actual retail locations.

GARY: As the CFO, I mean, it had to make sense financially, right?

Or were you like, "No, we can't do this."

MICHELLE: I mean, there's times where I have said, no, like we pump the brakes.

We need to slow down, you know?

We don't have any outside financing.

It's all coming from construction.

GARY: Really?

MICHELLE: You know.

So, it's hard sometimes, especially when construction is going down.

We have to plan and... GARY: So all of this is all self financed?

All the building purchases?

Everything?

MICHELLE: There's been two buildings where we got outside financing from.

All the rest.

And no bank would probably finance anything like this.

It's very risky, especially in a town like this.

GARY: Mike and I took a walk around the city.

He showed me several of the buildings that he's purchased, all in various stages of renovation.

Mike explained that tear-down and rebuilds would be a much more cost-effective option in many cases.

However, he's chosen to honor the importance of these beautiful historical buildings, which includes architecture styles such a Italianate, beaux-arts, Egyptian revival, colonial revival, and art deco, just to name a few.

I can't wait to come back to New Ken and see the culmination of all this hard work.

♪ What street is this we're on?

MIKE: This is Fifth Avenue.

GARY: Okay.

Is this considered like, the main street?

MIKE: This is Main Street, New Kensington.

GARY: Okay.

MIKE: They call it "the corridor of innovation."

When people said they were going downtown, they were going downtown New Kensington, right?

GARY: Got ya.

MIKE: That was just well, now, 30 years ago.

So this was our first building.

GARY: You own this one, too?

MIKE: Yeah.

This used to be the Bartolacci Clothing Company for, you know...

When we bought the building, old man Bartolacci was 95 years old.

The thing was packed full of 1970s vintage suits were still in there, right?

It's now... GARY: Now you have a tattoo shop?

MIKE: Now a tattoo shop.

She sells tattoo supplies and stuff in there.

GARY: New age stuff.

Cool.

You own this one?

MIKE: I own this building.

Yes.

We just signed Worldwide Wrestling.

The guy's a Worldwide Wrestling like fanatic.

He's bringing a studio wrestling training center.

GARY: What?

Like with the whole... MIKE: Yes, an official Worldwide Wrestling... GARY: With the ring?

MIKE: Rink.

GARY: Oh, wow.

MIKE: And his wife, fiancée, is a DJ.

So he's gonna do electronic dance DJ on the second floor, like, loft, while they're doing studio wrestling, like training on the first floor.

GARY: That is the most interesting mix I've ever heard of.

MIKE: Yes.

That's the kind of cool, eclectic... Like, who has that?

♪ GARY: There's a level of responsibility that you have now, though, right?

MIKE: Right.

It's like I'm a... You're a major, you know, contributor, stakeholder in town.

GARY: To the success or failure of... MIKE: And it's only...

I mean, it keeps...

The buildings become less and less important.

It's like all of my time is spent fixing the town, making events with Michelle.

We're coordinating these events and bringing people down here and cleaning the streets and finding out what does the town need to be?

How can the town be fixed, right?

GARY: Got it.

MIKE: And then as that draws more people and engages more people, then people just kind of... We attract people who come down and say, "Hey, I want to be involved and be part of this."

GARY: So there's no formula to the building reno at this point?

There's no formula?

Are you waiting until you get a tenant and then say, "How do you want it?"

MIKE: Yes.

GARY: Okay.

That makes sense.

MIKE: And then people come down and they just say, "Hey, I would like to, you know, be involved down here.

What kind of space?"

And then I just say, "Hey, you tell me what building, what location you're looking for," and then that's the building I focus on and start, you know, renovating that space for them.

GARY: Why is it important to bring communities together for events like you guys are putting together?

MICHELLE: It's incredibly important for this town because there is little to no foot traffic right now.

So we have to come up with events that bring people downtown, that bring people into the stores, that get the community to know what's here and visit it and come back regularly.

And it's also a way to just bring the community together as a whole.

GARY: So it's making it a destination to let people see something's happening here in New Kensington.

MICHELLE: Yes, something good is happening here, you know.

There's businesses here.

There's great shopping.

There's very unique stores that are here that you won't find anywhere else.

GARY: Tell me some stories about some of the businesses that you guys are working with here in town.

MICHELLE: There's so many.

I mean, we have three bakeries, one baklava, one's a cupcake bakery, and then Jamie from Sweet Alchemy.

There's another bakery.

Then we have bread shops.

We have massage therapy.

We have axe throwing.

There's so many different, it's so diverse.

GARY: Tell me a bit about your history, background.

JAMIE: My background is actually in therapy.

And so for me, baking was a way for me to cope with how I processed all the trauma that I had dealt with in my mental health job.

And it's funny because even though this is just a bakery, it's totally not just a bakery.

GARY: I'm getting that.

JAMIE: Yeah.

People come here, we talk about so many things.

Even just the people in the neighborhood will stop and chat.

I'm always here to support people any way that I can.

We talk about grief and loss.

We talk about all of those things, and it's just naturally me.

GARY: It's like part bakery, part therapy.

JAMIE: Yeah.

Yeah.

GARY: How did you end up here in New Kensington with Sweet Alchemy?

JAMIE: I had looked at some places in Pittsburgh, um, terrible experiences.

And I got connected to Mike and Michelle from Olde Town Overhaul.

They were the first people that actually listened to me as a woman business owner, as a vegan business owner.

They just want us to succeed.

The first conversation with Mike took 40 minutes, and he's like, "Hey, tell me about your business."

And he has this crazy energy, and you're like, "I'm so overwhelmed."

And you go, "I'm used to getting hung up on."

Okay.

And I was so excited.

Like, I couldn't even control that excitement.

And so when I walked into this space, which I was familiar with; it used to be an antique store.

The whole courtyard was an antique store.

And it had the stripe wall.

And I was like, "This is it.

This is my space."

GARY: You felt it?

JAMIE: I felt it.

"This is right.

Let me sign the lease."

GARY: What are some of the things that, you know, really stood out to you that made it, you know, reasonable and acceptable to move forward with it?

JAMIE: So the great thing about what Mike and Michelle from Olde Town Overhaul are doing is they're titrating our rent.

So they are offering right now six months, no rent.

They come in, they built the stuff, they did all the painting, they did the floors, they did the walls.

GARY: What?

I love these people.

JAMIE: I love them, too.

And then it's a small amount for six months.

And then they increase it for the next year.

And then the final year it's a little bit more.

Because they want your rent to grow as your business is growing.

GARY: It's such a logical approach.

What's your mentality with approaching it that way?

MIKE: Well, I mean, obviously we just need to get people here and invested in, you know, the space... GARY: Long term.

MIKE: ...and then hoping that they will spend that rental income in building out their space and building in the marketing.

Now the downside is, right, very few are, you know, seasoned businesses, right?

So these people could melt down year one, year two, and I'm building the whole space out and, you know, they melt down, I got little to no rent and they didn't make it, right?

So it's a dangerous rental game, but, I mean, it's half social entrepreneurship and it's half, you know, business venture.

And it's, I mean, it's very fun.

You know what I mean?

It's tricky, but it's exciting at the same time.

GARY: Tell me about another one of your business owners here.

I believe it's Las Hochas.

Axe throwing?

MIKE: Las Hachas.

That's it.

GARY: Las Hachas.

Okay.

I butchered it.

MIKE: That's "the axes," you know, "the axes" in Spanish.

I'm an active customer of theirs.

Yes, I go there.

My wife and I go regularly.

Yes.

They're doing really well and very busy.

And they have tournaments.

They have the number one axe thrower in the world.

GARY: What?

MIKE: That throws over there.

Yes.

He just joined their league.

GARY: Oh, that's huge.

So it's a destination now.

MIKE: It's an impressive feat to go over there and watch these guys throw.

And I'm addicted.

♪ GARY: Tell me about meeting Mike and Michelle.

BRIAN: We met him at Voodoo.

Go figure.

And we didn't know it was Mike when we first met him.

And we were just talking about, you know, he's starting to buy buildings.

He actually opened up the brewery, and he said, "Hey, if you guys have an idea, let me know."

So we gave him a business plan.

We told him what we wanted to do.

Mike helped with all the core things, right, the electricity, the plumbing, the gas.

GARY: That's the expensive stuff, man.

You guys are lucky.

BRIAN: It is.

Well, he promised us a white box.

And then he went above and beyond.

GARY: What do you think about in general, New Kensington as it is today and the future with all of this crazy growth that seems to be happening with Mike and other people that have invested?

BRIAN: I'm from New Kensington.

All three of us are actually from New Kensington.

We grew up here.

We all graduated from high school here.

There wasn't a lot of entertainment here, right?

You could come here and get a drink somewhere, you could come here and get food somewhere, but there wasn't really somewhere you could go and just have fun.

GARY: Spend the evening.

BRIAN: Exactly.

So that's what we're trying to do, is piggyback off the other businesses.

We do a lot of partnerships with the other businesses.

When it's for catering for us or even local breweries, sometimes we support their beer and provide it at our events.

GARY: Yeah, when businesses work together, it wins for... everybody wins, right?

BRIAN: Absolutely.

GARY: Sweet.

Well, I think I'm gonna throw my or try my hand at throwing some axes.

BRIAN: Awesome.

♪ GARY: What's the right way for me to do this?

BRIAN: Get a firm stance.

One foot forward.

Some people even do a squared stance, but you want obviously your dominant hand at the bottom.

So you're just gonna keep everything in a nice straight line and just let go.

No wrist action, just a nice let-go and follow-through.

GARY: Got it.

Okay, should I give one a try here?

BRIAN: Give it a try.

GARY: Okay.

♪ Oooh!

♪ What do you think the future is for this project?

MICHELLE: Future is bright.

I mean, we just keep, we're just gonna keep rolling.

More businesses are moving in.

We're continually doing events.

We're working with the city, you know.

Everybody's on board to make this a success.

GARY: Is housing ever, do you think, going to be a priority?

MICHELLE: Once we get the retail filled, we will have housing.

We do have some second-floor residential that's available.

GARY: Oh, above the businesses.

MICHELLE: Yeah, a lot of buildings have second-floor residential, but that's been like a secondary thought.

We first want to fill up the commercial retail spaces and then move into the residential.

GARY: Why do you do this?

What's the emotional aspect for you?

I know it's beyond a real estate venture.

It has to be.

MIKE: I didn't drink for 30 years, right.

I just stopped drinking, and I just was all work and no play, right?

You know, so at some point, right, I mean, you can just work yourself to death.

And I just said, you know, "I just want to try to mix a little bit of, you know, social entrepreneurship, a little bit of, you know, socializing, you know, with some beer and work."

And this has really turned into, like, the perfect lifestyle for me, right?

I can't just sit on a beach and do nothing.

I need to be actively engaged.

I need brain candy, right?

I need to stay stimulated and be actively involved in something.

So to be able to sit here at a pub, drink beer, socialize with people.

GARY: And do business.

MIKE: And then like, I run into people and they go like, "Oh, wait a minute, my son wants to open up a business in town or move his business over here."

75% of the 25 leases we've signed are people I just sat here in a beer garden having beer with, and like, they've either told their neighbor, their son, their son-in-law.

GARY: Everybody knows somebody.

MIKE: I mean, it's the easiest sales job I ever had.

I'm like, okay, I'll take this kind of work as opposed to the work I've been doing for 30 years.

GARY: It sounds to me like you're kind of paying it forward.

You reached a degree or a level of success in your life where you kind of maybe at this point, want to give back?

MIKE: Somebody had said to me a few years ago, right, that "You're not truly a success until you are helping other people be a success along with you," right?

And when they said that to me, it really resonated.

You know what I mean?

Because that's right.

I mean, you can be a success to a certain point, but then what does it really mean, right, until you are kind of sharing and helping and mentoring other people to be success with you.

So this whole town has kind of turned into all these 25 businesses, we're helping guide them, putting them in contact with local resources, like Penn State Corner, who helps people, train them, and with legal services and consulting, you know, on how to start up a business.

And Bridgeway Capital, who also has free consulting services.

So we're just kind of marrying all these people up with these services and these new businesses.

and it, you know, yeah, there's no doubt it feels good.

GARY: How does it feel to you emotionally to see somebody's dream of owning a small business come true and know that you had a little bit to do with that?

MIKE: It's very fulfilling.

There's no doubt.

I mean, when you spend 20 or 30 years driving up and down the East Coast, right, trying to just be a success and feed your family, right?

I mean, you don't have a big friend network because, you know, I mean, everybody's back home, and you're driving five days a week up and down the East Coast, right?

So, you know, I kind of missed a whole 20 years of, you know, having friends and thought, hey, I was just on the road all the time.

GARY: You're making up for it.

MIKE: So you're making up for it now, right?

So now you're connected to a town that, even though I'm not from here, you know, I feel like I'm connected now.

♪ GARY: It's not every day that you meet someone who's taken on the immeasurable task of overhauling an entire city's downtown.

But I can assure you that Mike and his team are fully dedicated to seeing this through, whatever it takes.

And Mike has a lot of skin in the game.

The entire venture is self financed, and he's even doing a lot of the renovation work on the buildings himself.

At the time that we filmed, Mike had purchased a total of 40 buildings in the downtown New Ken area.

But I'm sure that number has grown.

And Mike is committed to filling these spaces with primarily women- and minority-owned businesses, a decision that's incredibly important to him.

There's a palpable energy and optimism that's gaining momentum in New Ken, and Mike may be leading the charge, but this revitalization and resurgence requires the participation and dedication of the entire community.

Which includes the business owners that are taking the risk of planting roots in a depopulated, nearly forgotten city.

The people like Jamie and Michelle that are hosting events, drawing people from around the state to have a look at the future of New Ken.

Or the Brians, who are giving people the opportunity to spend a fun evening around town.

This is exactly what it takes, and it's truly incredible to witness.

This town is well on its way to setting an example for what's possible.

And if you're willing to go all in as a community, there is always the promise for a better tomorrow.

For more information, visit our website and search episodes for Olde Town Overhaul.

♪ Next time on "Start Up," we head to Harlem in New York City to meet up with Andre Peart, the founder of ConConnect, a company that has revolutionized the process of societal reentry by connecting formerly incarcerated people with resources and services.

Be sure to join us next time on "Start Up."

Would you like to learn more about the show or maybe nominate a business?

Visit our website at startup-usa.com and connect with us on social media.

♪ ♪ We got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us before we pay our dues ♪ ♪ We got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us before we pay our dues ♪ IAN: Awesome!

♪ ANNOUNCER: The first time you made a sale online was also the first time you heard of a town named... MAN: Dinosaur.

We just got an order from Dinosaur, Colorado.

MAN: No way!

ANNOUNCER: Build a website to help reach more customers.

WOMAN: Wait, wait, wait, wait!

One more.

ANNOUNCER: GoDaddy.

Tools and support for small business firsts.

Spectrum Business recognizes the importance of small businesses to local communities, so we're investing $21 million to help small businesses access funding to help them grow.

Spectrum Business.

More than an internet, phone, and TV provider.

♪