Nicastro wants to rejuvenate Arnold, brick by brick

Tony Nicastro is the kind of guy who would pass up a chance to meet the governor so he can spend time with his 5-year-old grandson.

He's the kind of guy who works every day even though he can afford to live the life most people dream about.

All at age 68.

Twenty years ago, his catch phrase was "No problem." Today it's "Are you kidding?"

"Are you kidding?" is what you hear from people who live in Arnold or New Kensington when you ask them if they know Antonio "Tony" Nicastro.

He's a legend in his own right; a man whose childhood story was told by Gov. Mark Schweiker when he spoke about hometown heroes in October at Roosevelt Park.

Schweiker was in town to publicly announce New Kensington and Arnold's involvement in the state's Weed and Seed program, which aims to drive low-level criminals from the streets and replace the vice they wrought with economic development and community ties.

Schweiker told a story about the time Nicastro was caught stealing plums from a New Kensington fruit stand and went on to turn his "punishment" into a fruitful first job.

Another reason why Schweiker highlighted Nicastro's story is that Nicastro for years has strived to build a better community, whether through political activism or by building quality apartments that rent for an affordable price.

Nicastro originally told Schweiker's assistant that he couldn't attend the governor's October ceremony because he needed to spend time with his grandson, Ryan Sowal.

So the assistant went a step further and got Ryan out of school for the day so he could parade through New Kensington and Arnold with his grandfather, the governor and about 200 area residents.

Nicastro said he couldn't pass up the offer, because it involved the community he spent his life in and worked hard to improve.

Nicastro is the largest property owner in Arnold and is the city's largest taxpayer. As the owner of Nicastro Construction/Home Remodeling, he has built more than 90 apartment buildings and a handful of banks in Arnold, New Kensington and in the Edgewood housing plan. The majority of the buildings, with the exclusion of the banks, are in Arnold.

Refusing to discuss details about personal wealth, he reluctantly said he's invested at least $5 million in Arnold.

"I'm an Arnold man," Nicastro said. "I believe in this city."

At age 14, Nicastro came to Arnold from the Province of Avalino, Bagnoli, Italy.

He had never seen his father before and knew almost no English when he and his mother boarded the old battleship, Marine Shark, for transport to America.

Nicastro's father, Lorenzo, served in the U.S. Army as an interpreter and went on to work for 28 years as an employee in the Arnold street department.

He and his wife, Rosanna Gatto Nicastro, spent the rest of their lives in Arnold after reuniting in 1948.

Both of Nicastro's grandfathers worked for American Window Glass in Arnold.

Not long after stepping off Marine Shark, Nicastro found himself in a precarious situation with the New Kensington police chief after stealing two plums from a fruit stand while walking home from school one day.

"I stole two plums," he remembered with a chuckle in his thick Italian accent. "My two friends stole some fruit, but they didn't get caught. They ran."

So the police chief and Saul Cabin, who owned the New Ken Fruit Center, told Nicastro that if he showed up at 5 a.m. -- every morning for two weeks -- they would let the mishap slide.

What Nicastro didn't find out until later, was that the two were joking.

"They never thought I'd show up," he said. "But at 5 o'clock in the morning, I was there.

Nicastro impressed Cabin so much that Cabin offered him a job. Nicastro made only $40 per week. Cabin realized it was not a fair wage. So Cabin offered Nicastro a fruit stand in Cheswick as compensation for back wages, and Nicastro accepted.

Then, Nicastro was drafted. Not once, but twice. The first time he avoided it, but the second time he decided to go. He served for 21 months, taking classes along the way in the Army to learn a little about home-remodeling.

After leaving the service, Nicastro worked a number of jobs, finding out that his gift from God was for building. He built his own house, and enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to spend the rest of his life building.

"I'm supposed to be retired," he said with a laugh.

But no one who laid over 160,000 bricks and 30,000 blocks over the past three years can really be retired.

Nicastro's building goal: "I gotta hit 100 (buildings) before I die."

He said he wants to do it for Arnold.

"You can't just grab all the time," Nicastro said. "You have to give a little bit."