Podcast: Resurrecting a Village by Buying Up Main Street

For several years, Greg O’Connell moved stealthily, buying building after building along a run-down stretch of Main Street in a small Finger Lakes region village in upstate New York. At first, folks did not know what to make of it all. But eventually it started to become more clear as he took control of more than a third of downtown and began chipping away at the building facades, renovating apartments and signing up tenants. Mr. O’Connell, 68, a big, shambling retired New York City detective, wants nothing less than to bring Mount Morris back from the dead and make it a western New York version of Red Hook, Brooklyn, where he made his name and millions.

The New York Times has profiled O’Connell twice within the last six months.

Mt. Morris is honored him on May 1 with a “Greg O’Connell Day”.

Greg O’Connell joins us with his story and that of how he re-built two communities – one in Brooklyn and one in Upstate New York.

At: http://conversationsontheroad.podbus.com/?p=583