{"id":367742,"date":"2026-08-10T20:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T20:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/367742\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T20:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T20:16:11","slug":"plan-to-replace-historic-wahnish-cigar-factory-draws-public-concerns-at-development-review-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/367742\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan to replace historic Wahnish Cigar Factory draws public concerns at development review meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Residents packed the city\u2019s development review committee meeting Monday morning as they expressed frustration with a plan to demolish the historic Wahnish Cigar Factory in Tallahassee\u2019s All Saints neighborhood and replace it with an apartment complex.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"There were no chairs left available in the Tallahassee Development Review Committee meeting room.\"  width=\"880\" height=\"587\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786392970_194_.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Tristan Wood<\/p>\n<p>\/<\/p>\n<p> WFSU Public Media<\/p>\n<p> There were no chairs left available in the Tallahassee Development Review Committee meeting room.<\/p>\n<p>The plan would put a 4 story, 70-unit apartment complex in the spot where an old cigar factory, built during the shade tobacco boom, now stands.<\/p>\n<p>The building, built in 1907 is on the local and national registers of historic places. It was also the old home of the Cow Haus music venue. It\u2019s also in the middle of the same neighborhood that\u2019s seen several new multi-story student style housing developments in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Tallahassee Historical Society President Bob Holladay spoke at the meeting. Holiday wants the historic building to be worked into the development plans.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"Tallahassee Historical Society President Bob Holladay speaks about preserving the Cigar factory.\"  width=\"880\" height=\"587\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786392970_616_.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Tristan Wood<\/p>\n<p>\/<\/p>\n<p> WFSU Public Media<\/p>\n<p> Tallahassee Historical Society President Bob Holladay speaks about preserving the Cigar factory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProperties like these can enrich our city just as they do in Ybor City, Key West, and St. Augustine, but only when our vision of the future accommodates them,\u201d he said. \u201cThis impulse, while profitable in the short term, further erodes the educational, historical, and cultural value of visiting the state capital. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>But the Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation&#8217;s Architectural Review Board says that\u2019s not feasible.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" alt=\"The area around the historic site has several multi-story, multi-unit housing developments around it, including these two buildings located diagonally across St. Francis Street.\"  width=\"880\" height=\"587\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786392971_855_.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Tristan Wood<\/p>\n<p>\/<\/p>\n<p> WFSU Public Media<\/p>\n<p> The area around the historic site has several multi-story, multi-unit housing developments around it, including these two buildings located diagonally across St. Francis Street.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s development review committee is still reviewing pieces of the plan, like potential easements. Another DRC meeting is set for September. The Architectural Review Board will also hold another meeting at an unannounced date where developers will present mitigation or commemoration plans for the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents packed the city\u2019s development review committee meeting Monday morning as they expressed frustration with a plan to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-367742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}