LA GRANGE, Ky. — La Grange Kentucky is set to be the set of HGTV’s newest series, “Home Town Kickstart.” The show is a spin-off of “Home Town Takeover” and “Home Town,” both starring the husband and wife team, Ben and Erin Napier.

Spectrum News 1 caught up with some La Grange locals to chat about revitalization projects they submitted for the show, in hopes their idea is chosen.


What You Need To Know

  • La Grange Kentucky is set to be the set of HGTV’s newest series, “Home Town Kickstart”

  • The show is a spin-off of “Home Town Takeover” and “Home Town,” both starring the husband and wife team, Ben and Erin Napier

  • “Home Town Kickstart” will help six small towns across the U.S. with their revitalization efforts 

  • The series is scheduled to premiere in 2022

La Grange is dubbed the “Kindness Capital of Kentucky,” and many locals in the town are excited for the generosity that’s to come when HGTV’s “Home Town” stars, the Napiers, take on three projects for an upcoming series called “Home Town Kickstart.”

You can watch the show's trailer here.

Residents in the community submitted applications for what they wanted restored or revitalized in La Grange.

Here’s a look at what some locals pitched for the show. 

“There are several people in the town that have bought the buildings with the purpose of not just painting them but really getting into restoring them, and so that was kind of an early movement,” Heather Hottenroth, chairperson of the La Grange Historic Commission, told Spectrum News 1.

During the series, the Napiers will take on three projects in each town, which include refreshing the home of a local hero, upgrading a small business, and reinvigorating a public space.

Locals like Julia Koontz, who owns a few buildings in La Grange, including the historic Gatewood building at 125 E. Main Street, submitted applications for what they want the Napiers to tackle. She bought and then renovated the Gatewood building, which was built in 1908.

“And really in the whole district, there were more vacancies than there were businesses,” Koontz said. 

The 52-year-old now rents the building out for events, like weddings. She hopes HGTV takes on her next project, the basement. Right now, it’s a storage space storage, but her vision is a speakeasy called “Goodfellas Bourbon Cellar.”

“I’ve collected three prescriptions from this building, since it was originally a drugstore, that were all written during the prohibition era for medicinal whiskey,” Koontz explained. “I guess back in the day, Main Street was pretty happening!”

Business owners like Koontz envision that for Main Street, again, a very lively and happening thoroughfare. She said “Home Town Kickstart” will make it happen, whether they choose her project or not.

“Anything they do, it’s just bringing more life to the community. It’s bringing more opportunity, of course tourism, you know. Like I said, we all benefit from that,” she said.

Hottenroth owns about $1.3 million of real estate in La Grange. One of the buildings she bought and restored on Main Street will soon open as a museum. However, she submitted an idea to beautify Main Streets’ alleyways and connect them to make a walkable loop.

“Everyone’s been to a cool alley in a big town or small towns that have these little alleys, and everybody just loves that idea and is talk to them about it,” Hottenroth said. “You know, fingers crossed, it would be super awesome if it could be one of the projects, but we’ll see!”

“Home Town Kickstart” will also focus on sharing unique stories about standout locals from the U.S. towns featured in the series.

The other five towns selected are Buffalo, Wyoming; Cornwall, New York; Winslow, Arizona; Thomaston, Georgia; and Minden, Louisiana.

The series is set to premiere in 2022, but no official show date has been announced. However, if you tune into HGTV on Sun., Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. CT/8 p.m. ET for “Home Town Takeover: Where Are They Now,” the last few minutes of that special will include the town announcements for “Home Town Kickstart.”

HGTV is on channel 51 for Spectrum cable subscribers.