Historic Ohringer building to bring artist colony to Braddock - TribLIVE

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Gregg Kander doesn’t know when to stop. Just ask those working on his newest project, the rehabilitation of Braddock’s historic Ohringer Furniture building.

By late summer, it is expected to house a hand-picked, diverse community of artists living in a space designed to catalyze creativity. The basement will house communal art studio spaces and two rehearsal studios. There will be a rooftop deck and street-level courtyard. Its six studio and 31 one-bedroom apartments feature open floor plans, high ceilings and an unexpected number of windows, with urban and skyline views from its seven floors.

“I wanted to make it like, ‘If I lived there, what would we have?’ ” Kander said.

Abby Macky | For the Tribune-Review

Gregg Kander

He has insisted on several cost-unconscious upgrades to the original plans, like artist-designed lighting and railings and a courtyard enclosure meant to display graffiti.

Kander also insisted all 37 units are will be affordable housing.

This artist colony concept is borrowed straight from Kander’s New York City roots and calls to mind the origins of Greenwich Village or SoHo. Protecting tenants with a low-income housing designation sounds more like something from a pricier part of town.

That uncommon combination speaks to the development’s uncommon purpose.

“This project is really turning the low-income housing thing on its head and saying, ‘We want you artists to help these 2,000 residents of Braddock,’ ” Kander said. “We’re not doing it for you; we’re doing it for the community.”

‘A true mensch’

Kander, a tax attorney by training, moved to Pittsburgh from Manhattan in 1993 with his Pittsburgh-native wife, Ellen Weiss, whose family is well-known for Weisshouse, the East End furniture store and interior design service. The couple had three children while Kander worked as general counsel for the Sweet ’N Low company as well as representing Walnut Capital in some pivotal transactions, such as securing the Bakery Square property.

After Ellen Weiss passed away eight years ago, Kander began to feel uninspired by the work he’d been doing.

“I started buying my own properties in Lawrenceville as something to excite me again, buildings in such bad shape they had trees growing in them,” Kander said of his for-profit endeavors.

Two years later, Kander started dating his now-fiance, Anna Hollis. She’s the executive director of Amachi Pittsburgh, a nonprofit dedicated to helping support the children of incarcerated parents. She’s also a Black woman whose life experiences have changed Kander’s view of the world. One of her influences, getting the self-proclaimed “Jewish kid from Queens” to attend church, has had consequences no one could have predicted.

About five years ago, a Sunday sermon at Keystone Church of Hazelwood, where Hollis’ brother is the pastor, encouraged the congregation to take any opportunity to help their community without hesitation, no excuses.

“The very next day, someone came to me and said, ‘There’s this restaurant that didn’t open for three years in Braddock, and it’s all about giving jobs to the community, do you want to get involved?’ ” Kander said of what is now Superior Motors. “I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is it! Do I do it or not?’”

Another Sunday sermon taught about the importance of honoring what already exists in communities when trying to bring about positive change.

Kander transformed that thought into a business style, and it’s earned him the utmost respect.

“Gregg’s a true mensch,” said Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the former mayor of Braddock. “He is absolutely fixated on making sure that the community’s input is accounted at every step of the way.”

Braddock Mayor Chardae Jones has had similar experiences with Kander, like when he wanted to erect the five-stories-high “Black Artists Matter” sign that now studs the front of the Ohringer building.

The sign speaks to the systemic racism that exists even within the arts, Kander said, and it stands as a beacon for the inclusiveness that The Ohringer project intends. Erected in June, the sign will emblazon the building until the end of August, when the retro-style, LED blade sign reading “Ohringer” will be permanently installed.

“Most developers just want to come in and build, and the thing I like about Gregg is he wanted us to be involved in every step, down to the sign he just put up outside,” she said.

The Ohringer is just the latest in a series of Kander’s community-focused developments in Braddock. Braddock Arts & Media is planned to have dance and recording studios with an additional floor of space for working artists. In another venture, he plans to partner with The Hollander — a nonprofit that incubates women-owned businesses — to launch one of their pilot businesses into a permanent space.

Kander’s economic freedom to pursue such endeavors echoes the turning-bad-to-good refrain.

In 2015, Kander was awarded $5.7 million in a wrongful death and professional negligence suit against UPMC after the death of his wife, Ellen. Some of those funds have been funneled into all three of these people-focused Braddock endeavors.

Kander also has secured $14 million in funding for The Ohringer, which includes low-income and historic tax credits.

“He’s a convener; he’s a visionary; but he also has this altruism,” said Fetterman. “He’s not in it to make a dollar, not that there’d be anything wrong with it if he was a developer. But, he’s not a developer looking to make money: He’s just doing it because it’s the right thing to do, and he cares about building this community up.”

Kander wound up pursuing Superior Motors, becoming a partner and investor. It was was named a 2018 Restaurant of the Year by Food & Wine Magazine. The restaurant, headed by chef Kevin Sousa, has been closed during the coronavirus pandemic. Kander said he expects it to reopen in the fall.

‘Keep going’

After witnessing the community success associated with Superior Motors, then-Mayor Fetterman encouraged Kander to take on another project: the Ohringer Furniture building.

Ohringer Furniture, both the building and the business, stood as a centerpiece of Braddock Avenue for over 50 years. It gained a reputation for selling affordable furniture, even though the economic hardships of World War II.

Its other claim to fame was the largest curved glass window in the country, which surrounded an 18-foot diameter rotating display platform.

The glass is long gone, but Kander and his team discovered the platform beneath old floorboards as construction began. Some research led to a 1941 newspaper article that described the furniture store’s unique front window, allowing multiple furniture sets to be displayed at once.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring back something from 1941, or just say forget about it,” said Kander. “I was like, ‘Guys, you gotta rip up the floor. We have to get this going.’ ”

When the motor proved to be inoperable, Kander called Millvale’s Daniels Electric after having used the company for repairs at his own home.

Unbeknownst to Kander, Daniels Electric is just a bit older than the motor he was hoping to restart. The business has even been in the same building since the 1940s, which has led to quite a collection of oddball parts.

Bill Hughes, a third-generation Daniels family electrician, promised to take a look at the engine within a week. He brought it back to Kander the next day working perfectly.

“My grandfather had some old parts in some boxes and drawers here,” said Hughes. “I guess he ordered a bunch of switches at one time, and we still had the new, genuine Westinghouse switches in stock to repair it.”

Consistent with the rest of Kander’s laissez-faire philosophy, he’ll leave the platform’s display up to his artist-residents.

They’ll also be empowered to assign purpose to the building’s first-floor community area and half of its retail space.

Ohringer Arts, as the new concept is dubbed, is a thrill for Al Boss, an optician whose 58-year-old business sits next door to the building.

“I’m excited, especially when it comes to bringing young people back into the community,” Boss said. “They have fresh ideas, and that’s what we need.”

Future tenants of Ohringer Arts need not make a living as artists, but they must have a genuine commitment to their craft. Kander hopes to build a racially and ethnically diverse group whose artistic creativity will transfer to creative community endeavors in Braddock.

It’s a vision that Fetterman has cheered on since its inception.

“One of the things I’m going to be remembered for most in Braddock is I was the guy who brought Gregg Kander into Braddock,” said Fetterman. “The work that Gregg’s done is just extraordinary, and I’m so grateful that Gregg is involved in the revitalization effort there.”

Abby Mackey is a Tribune-Review contributing writer. You can contact Abby at abbyrose.mackey@gmail.com or via Twitter.

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