At 75, Jim Murphy would gladly retire — if he could only find a buyer for the business he has poured everything into for the last three decades.
When he bought Rostraver Ice Garden, a 5,000-seat arena in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, in 1993, it was supposed to be a fix-and-flip project with a five-year turnaround. If he could do it over again, he would not have doubled down so many times over the years in order to keep the doors open when the initial plan went off track.
"I put a lot of money into this place," Mr. Murphy said. "There were times when my family would say, 'Just drop the keys on the table and give it back to the bank.' But I didn't."
