The Tallahassee City Commission voted 4-0 last Wednesday to delay consideration of demolition permits for the 1907 Wahnish Cigar Factory, putting a temporary hold on plans to clear the site for a 73-unit student apartment project. The pause came after a letter arrived just an hour before the meeting alleging that the city’s Architectural Review Board had procedural problems when it approved the demolition. Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey was out of chambers during the vote.
The letter, written by Max Epstein, alleged that the Architectural Review Board violated several rules when it voted on the Wahnish Cigar Factory demolition, according to the Miami Herald. Epstein requested that demolition permits for both the Wahnish Cigar Factory and the Marshall House be withheld until vacant board seats are filled, and that a reconstituted board publicly rehear both applications and issue signed written findings. City Attorney Amy Toman said she needed time to review the allegations, and Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, who made the motion to delay, said he wanted the city to ensure the board was functioning properly.
A Board Short on Members
At the center of the dispute is the Architectural Review Board itself, which has two vacant seats — one city seat and one county seat — that have remained empty since at least December 3, 2025, per the same report. That gap exceeds the board’s 60-day limit for filling vacancies. When the board voted on the Wahnish demolition on April 1, only five members took part, even though board bylaws require six members to take action.
City Manager Reese said growth management could delay permit issuance at the commission’s direction, and the commission opted to pause issuance of demolition permits while the allegations are sorted out. The Development Review Committee had already postponed action on the demolition request and is now set to discuss the proposal again at its meeting Monday, September 28, at 9 a.m. at the Renaissance Center on North Macomb Street. City staff plan to recommend approval of the site plan with conditions, and a decision on that site plan is scheduled for Monday morning.
A Building With Layers of History
Built in 1907 by Alfred Wahnish at 469 St. Francis Street, the Wahnish Cigar Factory and Tobacco Warehouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018, according to the Florida Department of State. Constructed during Leon County’s early 20th-century shade tobacco boom, the factory was the largest cigar operation in Tallahassee at the time and remains the city’s last surviving historic cigar manufacturing structure, WFSU Public Media reports…