The builder’s site plan with today’s factory traced in red: the new clubhouse sits inside the factory’s outline.
Builder’s plan set TSP260037, Sheets 2.0 and 3.0 (July 9, 2026); red and blue marks added · Original
Top: the Wahnish Cigar Factory in Tallahassee, built 1907; 908 Group’s plan tears it down. Bottom left: the Perry Paint & Glass Building in Tampa, built 1927, where 908 Group has its office. Bottom right: 2209 E. 7th Ave. in Ybor City, built 1913, listed as 908 Development’s address. Both are renovated brick buildings.
National Register nomination photo 1 (Erin Vaughn, 2018); Mapillary street photos by jackdripper (2019) and allen (2026), CC BY-SA 4.0. Labels added. · Originals: 1 2 3 4 5
1 · The swap
9,951 sq ft

908 Group’s plan puts a new clubhouse where the factory stands.

The factory covers 9,951 square feet. The new clubhouse rooms add up to 9,750. The red line is today’s building, from the builder’s survey.1

2 · The swap
1907

908 Group works out of old brick buildings that were fixed up.

Its Tampa office is in a 1927 building. The owner calls it “a historic office building.” The Cigar Factory is older.2,3,4,5

Both legal notices, July 30 and Sept. 10, 2026, and the Sept. 28 DRC agenda: a 73-unit project, one deviation for setbacks, ASN-B zoning.
Tallahassee Democrat legal notices, July 30 and Sept. 10, 2026, and DRC agenda, Sept. 28, 2026 (excerpts); highlights added · Originals: 1 2 3
City Principal Planner email, Sept. 25, 2026: staff is recommending approval of the setback deviation; the most recent plans show 74 dwelling units; the architectural tabulations include units from a nearby project intended to share amenities with the Cigar Factory development; that project will be reviewed separately.
City staff email to the author, Sept. 25, 2026 (excerpts; the author’s email address removed); highlights added · Original
Comment: “Confirmed that the variance letter was received,” and City Policy 600, which lets one official grant a street variance “in his opinion.”
City of Tallahassee public record; highlights added (permit portal; City Commission Policy 600) · Originals: 1 2
3 · What the public wasn’t told
1 deviation

Both notices and the agenda listed one deviation and 73 apartments.

Only the setbacks. When a storage building asked for a fifth floor in 2025, its agenda said so.6,7,8

4 · What the public wasn’t told
74 + ?

The City’s planner counts 74, including units from another project.

Planning also adds a second deviation, for a fifth floor. Neither is in the notices or the agenda. One project, two reviews?9,10

5 · What the public wasn’t told

The City received a “variance letter.” No one has said what it allows.

It isn’t in the notices, the agenda or the portal. City policy lets the General Manager of Underground Utilities and Public Infrastructure, or a designee, grant a street variance “in his opinion.”10,11

Concept illustration from above: the 1907 factory kept at the corner, apartments built over the 1908 addition, the live oak kept, new wings and a smaller garage to the east.
Concept illustration by MAXAI; not the builder’s design · Originals: 1 2
Split view of the restored factory front: by day with a patio and people, and after dark with glowing windows, a lit sign and string lights. Scrolling moves the split.BY DAYAFTER DARK
AI-assisted concept illustration · not the builder’s design
AI-assisted concept illustration by MAXAI, made from National Register photo 1 (Erin Vaughn, 2018) · Original
Street-level view of the white-painted factory and its 1908 warehouse: the factory wall carries a large tobacco-leaf-and-hands mural, the warehouse wall a jazz-musicians mural and an oak-and-magnolia mural around glass roll-up workshop doors and a glowing glass studio, with three floors of red-brick and weathering-steel lofts set back above the warehouse and people walking past young street trees.
AI-assisted concept illustration · not the builder’s design
AI-assisted concept illustration by MAXAI, made from National Register photo 2 (Andrew Waber, 2018); loft brick from a 2019 street photo by jackdripper via Mapillary (CC BY-SA 4.0), shared under the same license · Originals: 1 2
Looking east on St. Francis Street from in front of the factory: the huge live oak kept, a small brick-paved plaza with benches and people in its shade, and a new four-story brick apartment building behind it.
AI-assisted concept illustration · not the builder’s design
AI-assisted concept illustration by MAXAI, made from a Jan. 27, 2016 street photo (maxolasersquad via Mapillary, CC BY-SA 4.0); shared under the same license · Original
6 · Our plan
≈ 289 beds

Keep the whole factory as the clubhouse. Nearly every bed still fits.

Apartments go over the 1908 addition. No fifth floor. A rough plan, not an engineered design.1,12,5

7 · Our plan

By day, the clubhouse. After dark, the Cow Haus makes a comeback.

In 2024, 908 Group tore down the old Cow Haus on Railroad Avenue for student housing. The factory could give the music a home again. It was listed in 2018, with Rick Barnett as owner. The sign is our idea; we aren’t tied to Cow Haus Presents.13,5

8 · Our plan

Studios above, workshops below, murals outside.

Three floors of brick-and-steel lofts over the 1908 warehouse, with workshops and a glass studio on the ground floor. A concept, not a design.5,1

9 · Our plan

Keep the oak, and build around it.

Our plan opens the new wing around the tree, with a plaza in its shade. The builder’s plan builds where it grows.14,1

Paying for it: tools that work if the factory stays

  • A City redevelopment district. The site is inside the Greater Frenchtown/Southside Community Redevelopment Area. Its CRA offers façade grants up to $50,000 and puts about $500,000 a year into affordable and workforce housing.16
  • The City could buy it. Florida law lets a CRA buy property in its district and lease or sell it for uses in its plan: artist lofts, live/work studios, workshops.17
  • More incentive zones. The parcel is also in a federal Opportunity Zone, the Gaines Street brownfield area and an Urban Jobs Tax Credit area.15
  • Historic credits. 20 percent federal credit on rehab costs; up to 10 years off county taxes on the improvements.18
  • Parking. None is required here. The garage already shrank from 240 to 200 spaces.1

Our cost ranges assume none of these tools. Whether the owner would sell is unknown.

Comprehensive Plan, Historic Preservation Element, Policy 1.4.4: allow exceptions to zoning regulations when such exceptions promote the preservation of historic resources. Policy 1.4.5: provide incentives, including waivers of taxes and fees.
Tallahassee-Leon County 2050 Comprehensive Plan, Historic Preservation Element, p. 176; highlights added · Original
10 · Paying for it
CRA

The site is in a City redevelopment district. The City could help buy it.

It is in the Frenchtown/Southside CRA and an Opportunity Zone. No parking is required. Old buildings earn a 20 percent credit.15,16,17,18,1

11 · Paying for it

The City’s own plan says to bend the rules to save old buildings.

Its policy: “allow exceptions” when they help preserve historic places. Monday’s exceptions help a plan that tears one down.19

A huge live oak draped in Spanish moss over St. Francis Street, with a curved concrete wall at its base; inset, the builder’s survey shows the same curved wall around the tree labeled LEO 80.
Photo: maxolasersquad via Mapillary, Jan. 27, 2016, CC BY-SA 4.0; labels and survey inset (Sheet 2.0) added · Originals: 1 2 3
Three records stacked: the planner’s Sept. 25 email saying staff recommends the setback deviation because existing utilities make the required setbacks infeasible; Planning’s written finding that the southern property line is constrained by overhead utility lines; and the Electric Utility’s comments that facilities are shown to be removed, converted to underground or to remain, that all relocation costs are borne by the applicant, and that the overhead line along All Saints Street is shown to remain.
Email to the author, Sept. 25, 2026, and TSP260037 plan review comments; highlights added · Originals: 1 2
July 28, 2026 email from a City senior planner to a colleague: here is the certificate of appropriateness for 908 Cigar Factory, as submitted with TEX260022. Below, the attached demolition certificate: individually listed property; documentation including measured drawings before demolition; all future development to be reviewed by the Architectural Review Board.
City of Tallahassee public record; highlights added (PRR-2026-1082, message 34 and attachment) · Originals: 1 2 3 4
12 · What the file shows
80 inches

A 1999 plan for the City named “a Patriarch Oak” east of the factory.

The survey shows an 80-inch live oak there. Neighborhood rules say patriarch trees “shall be preserved.” The City says none qualifies.1,20,21,9

13 · What the file shows

Staff’s reason for bending the setbacks: a power line the plan keeps.

A Sept. 25 email says utilities make the setbacks “infeasible.” Other lines are being removed or buried at the builder’s cost. The All Saints line is “shown to remain.” It doesn’t explain the deeper Macomb setback. The Code asks if the design will “better meet” the standards.9,10,21

14 · What the file shows

In July, the City let the builder skip a nature and history survey.

The request came with the OK to tear down a “listed property.” The history records it needed aren’t in the public file.22,23,24,21

Check our work: what is still open

  1. Which project shares the amenities? Staff did not name it. The Saint, next door and also on Monday’s agenda, is the likeliest. The builder’s unit tables would settle it.
  2. Is the street photo the same oak? The curved wall at its base matches the survey. A site visit would settle it.
  3. Who checked the oak? The City says no tree is an “exceptional specimen.” No written tree report is public. A copy would settle it.
  4. Did the factory’s history records come in? The July exemption required them with the site plan. The file does not show them. A copy would settle it.
  5. Our bed and cost figures are rough. Beds ±15 percent, costs ±40 percent. The builder’s own numbers would settle them.
  6. What does the variance letter allow? We have not seen it. A public records request would settle it.
  7. Would the owner sell, and would the CRA buy? Neither has said. A CRA board discussion would settle it.

Monday, Sept. 28, 9 a.m.

Where: 435 N. Macomb St., first floor, or Webex. To speak: email [email protected].

How it works: department heads vote on staff’s written findings; “No testimony may be received.” A written decision follows. It becomes final in 30 days unless a person with standing petitions, with a fee, for a formal hearing.21

A win already: staff will require the review board to approve any new building. Staff cites one line in the April demolition certificate signed by Historic Preservation Officer Shannon Kuch: “All future development of subject parcel to be reviewed by the Architectural Review Board.”24

No rush: the City’s Electric Utility told the builder, “Note there is a 1 to 2-year lead time for three-phase pad mount transformers.”10 A pause costs little; a demolition can’t be undone.

Ask for:

  • A pause, and a new notice with the fifth floor, every unit and the variance letter.
  • A tree report and the July history records.
  • No demolition permit until the new building is approved.
  • Keep the oak. Study the factory as the clubhouse.
15 · Check our work · Monday

Check our work.

Every record is shown as found; the yellow marks are ours. Here is where we could be wrong, and what would settle it.

16 · Check our work · Monday
9:00 a.m.

Monday is not a hearing. Ask the committee to pause.

There’s time: the utility notes a 1 to 2-year wait for three-phase transformers. Staff will require the review board to OK any new building, citing the April certificate signed by Shannon Kuch, the board’s preservation officer.10,21,24,9