Now to Silicon Valley meets south central Kentucky.

What was once a former shopping mall is today home to a host of tech entrepreneurs and creatives.

These startups are paving their way in an increasingly digital world, and in what many consider an unlikely place.

In the 1960s, this building, spanning 285,000ft, was home to a bustling shopping mall.

It was the Mecca of economic development.

Years later, when another mall opened across town, this one became empty and dilapidated.

It was just a mess.

The floors.

You couldn't even walk on them.

On the inside.

In the early 2000s, Western Kentucky University bought the building that would become the center for Research and Development.

The Innovation Act of 2000 created funding for the first time for what they called the knowledge based economy, which we call the tech economy today.

Now known as the WKU Innovation Campus, it is home to one of six innovation hubs funded by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

A central region ecosystem for arts, technology and entrepreneurship.

The WKU Innovation Campus is really interesting because it's the symbol of reinvention.

Sean Rubles VTC is one of the tech startups that calls this campus home.

I first moved to Bowling Green for a job right out of college as a graphic designer working for this company out of an old mall, which was very odd and strange to me.

At the time, but it worked.

Later on, Rubel was inspired to start his own company that connects creators to stock imagery for their projects.

We started just down the hall in a 300 square foot office space.

We had a plastic desk and a this beanbag chair.

Every day we'd come in and work and try to figure it out.

That Daisy counts Major League Baseball, TV network, In-N-Out burger and Bowling Greens Blue Cotton among its clients.

The online creative platform has a team of 56 people, many of them working remotely, using the Innovation Campus as a central meeting hub.

The WKU Innovation Campus has been wonderful for us.

There's a lot of energy happening here.

That energy is evident, and young entrepreneurs like Kahlil Garman.

And I just walked straight in and I said, hey, you know, I've been building this project in my college apartment.

I'd love a place with better Wi-Fi and maybe some whiteboards.

And they said, well, this is your place.

This is your tribe.

Garman is founder and CEO of money, which teaches students about personal finance.

Money board is a financial education platform where we use gamification AI technology to make learning about money simple, easy for teachers and student.

Which grew out of a classroom project, is now widely used in classrooms across Kentucky and beyond.

As more states mandate financial literacy, courses.

Call this the money verse.

This is where kids can buy their their.

But this is a place where lots of talented people are.

They share their network.

They share their experiences.

When you hear of startup culture, you hear about San Francisco.

You hear about New York.

But upon working in the collaborative smart space and observing success in the Small Business Accelerator, Garman continued his work in his college community.

It started to open my mind about, oh, I can have that sort of ambition, and it can work not just in Kentucky, but here in Bowling Green.

As that ambition and hard work pay off, companies have the space to grow and collaborate.

There's a culture, there's a vibe of collaboration.

It has become the place to be if you're technology oriented or you're trying to do something new.

The innovation campus is at close to 90% occupancy.

This also comes at a time when nearly half of all architectural projects in the U.S.

involve adaptive reuse, rather than new construction.