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Downtown McKeesport's long-battered business district, where boarded-up storefronts outnumber active businesses, is primed for a comeback within three years, predicts Larry Wolfe, owner of L&L Christian Bookstore on Walnut Street.

Wolfe just hopes that he can hold on that long. He was our guest at 9:30 a.m. Friday on "Two Rivers, 30 Minutes," heard over WEDO (810) and also available on Stitcher and iTunes.

"I think things are going to turn around here," he says. "I think some of the people who own property around here are holding onto it because they know that ... they've got the marina with over 200 boats in there. I'm sure they're going to expand that. If you have 200 boats you have 400 to 800 people there every weekend."

An entrepreneur who owns several businesses in his native Cleveland, Wolfe opened the bookstore two months ago in the former Golden Rule home decorating store near the intersection of Fifth and Walnut. The brightly lit store is packed with new merchandise ranging from books and gospel CDs through children's toys, coloring books, choir robes and liturgical material.

Wolfe has a similar successful store in East Cleveland that he claims is the most successful independent Christian bookstore in Ohio.

Yet in McKeesport, business has been slow --- some days, he makes only one or two sales. He watches hundreds of cars pass his front door, but few stop. "You've got one or two businesses trying to do something here," Wolfe says. "But you need other things here."

The Downtown district needs small specialty stores --- gift shops, card shops, beauty salons --- that people don't go to the mall for.

Unfortunately, Wolfe argues that uncooperative landlords and property owners who refuse to rent or sell their buildings are a big problem in Downtown McKeesport. "They've got a lot of people who own these buildings and they're not trying to rent them," he says. "They've let these buildings go so long they'll need $300,000 just to fix them up."

The biggest misconception is that Downtown McKeesport is unsafe, Wolfe says. "It's safe down here. Nobody bothers anybody during the daytime. You can walk the streets and nobody bothers you. Now, you come down here at 11 o'clock or midnight? I'll tell you to stay home. But that's anywhere you go."

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