SoMo Walls the next Blueprint battle line as politically-connected developer seeks $1.8M
TaMaryn Waters, Tallahassee Democrat
Updated 12 min read
Developer Bugra Demirel gives a behind the scenes tour of the construction of the SoMo Walls development on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023.
The developer behind SoMo Walls who also chairs a political committee involved in shaping recent elections is asking for more public money — nearly $1.8 million in Blueprint 2020 funds — to help complete the project.
However, the request by Bugra Demirel — which he made in person at the Blueprint board’s most recent meeting Aug. 24 — has sparked harsh criticism from several elected officials and raised eyebrows among observers. It also prompted calls for commissioners to recuse themselves and accusations of possible Sunshine Law violations.
Demirel is in the process of transforming an entire city block on South Monroe Street into a 30,587 square-foot retail and dining destination, complete with its own distillery. The project is already slated to receive $776,000 in Community Redevelopment Agency funds once complete; $560,000 in grants and $216,000 as a reimbursement.
The exterior of the tenantsÕ space at the SoMo Walls development as seen on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023.
According to Blueprint documents, the project’s original budget of $5.6 million ballooned to nearly $11 million because of increased construction, furniture, fixtures, equipment and permitting costs along with the addition of Walls Distillery Company.
On Thursday, city and county commissioners who make up Blueprint's Intergovernmental Agency board will take up whether to approve roughly $1,760,000 for SoMo Walls, with the money going toward construction. Under the proposal, the developer would pay Blueprint back $1 million, or roughly 57% of the total appropriation, in 2027. The meeting takes place at 3 p.m. Sept. 21 at the City Commission Chambers.
The Office of Economic Vitality, which reviewed the non-competitive funding request by Demirel’s company, Cascades Garden, LLC, gave it a score of 93 out of 95 points and said it was eligible for the full amount under policy. The Blueprint agenda item says it could lead to a $17.8 million economic impact on the community.
Demirel said the project is more than half-way complete and that the first phase is on track to be done by December or early January. He attributed the rising costs to inflation, some expenses coming in “way over budget” and the addition of the distillery, a business he owns, as the property’s anchor feature.
Developer Bugra Demirel gives a behind the scenes tour of the construction of the SoMo Walls development on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023.
“(The) SoMo Walls project’s substantial $11 million capital investment represents a significant economic opportunity for the south side,” he said. “The project will continue to create jobs, boost property values, upgrade public infrastructure, stimulate commercial activity, enhance community development and improve quality of life on the south side.”
But City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow — who has led a vocal charge on social media against the funding request — called it an overreach and “a recipe for disaster” that could “bring the FBI back to town.” Matlow has been a longtime critic of both Demirel and his Grow Tallahassee political committee, which spent thousands in last year’s election on mailers and ads supporting candidates including David Bellamy, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat the commissioner.
“Are we opening up an agency where if you want to get money, you have to set up a political committee and support commissioners and then have them vote for it?” Matlow asked. “People are developing all over the city. How do you pick and choose who should get economic development dollars? Should everybody get it or should just the politically connected get it?”
City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow listens to public comment during the Blueprint meeting at City Hall on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023.
There were other last-minute accusations as the Blueprint vote neared.
On Tuesday, Matlow said that as he was going to his office at City Hall, he saw Mayor John Dailey and City Commissioner Curtis Richardson in Richardson’s office and heard the mayor talking about Demirel and the Office of Economic Vitality.
Neither Dailey nor Richardson would comment on Matlow’s account, which he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. The Sunshine Law requires meetings of two or more members of the same board to discuss business in public meetings only.
“When I came around the corner, right when (Dailey) saw me, he stopped talking,” Matlow said. “And it was kind of like awkward. They’re actively discussing the most important vote of the week. It’s not a noticed meeting. And they’re sharing information that I don’t think is public knowledge.”
'I would love to vote on this': SoMo Walls prompts one recusal, calls for more
At the end of the Blueprint board’s Aug. 24 meeting, commissioners asked staff to work with Demirel and develop “an ask” for SoMo Walls after he got up and publicly acknowledged without elaboration that it was facing “some challenges.”
County Commissioner Bill Proctor made the motion, calling SoMo Walls a “courageous investment” for the southside and saying it “needs to fly, not limp.”
SoMo Walls, a $5 million redevelopment project off of South Monroe Street between Oakland Avenue and Harrison Street.
Blueprint board members voted 11-1 in favor, with County Commissioner David O’Keefe voting no and County Commissioner Christian Caban abstaining. Caban announced that he had a conflict of interest because of a business relationship with Gina Demirel, the developer’s spouse.
“I would love to vote on this,” Caban told his Blueprint colleagues, “and if I could vote, I would support it without a doubt."
As required by state law, Caban filed a Form 8B acknowledging his voting conflict. He wrote that he is a client of Gina Demirel, an architect and vice president of operations for Conn Architects of Tallahassee who is listed as board president for Grow Tallahassee. The Conn firm is working on the SoMo Walls project, which it features prominently on its website.
Since then, there have been more calls for commissioners to recuse themselves. Under Florida law, local officials can’t vote on items that would give a special benefit to themselves, their employers, their relatives or business associates.
Matlow said Dailey and several other Blueprint board members should abstain from voting because of the political support they’ve gotten from Grow Tallahassee or other ties to the political committee.
Grow Tallahassee supported Dailey, City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox, County Commissioners Nick Maddox and Bill Proctor and Caban in the 2022 election. It paid to boost social media posts with negative takes on Matlow and City Commissioner Jack Porter.
Matlow noted that Grow Tallahassee also paid $22,000 in the last cycle to Chauncy Haynes' firm, Haynes & Associates. Haynes, who works as County Commissioner Carolyn Cummings' aide, was a paid consultant for Cumming in 2020 and Dailey, Maddox and Caban in 2022, according to campaign finance reports.
Demirel wrote a letter Tuesday to the Blueprint board saying Matlow “must recuse himself” from the vote because developers plan to include a pizza restaurant in SoMo Walls “that will engage in direct competition with Commissioner Matlow’s enterprise, Gaines Street Pies.” Demirel wrote that Matlow “evidently recognizes that increased competition” would hurt his pizza business.
In other developments, the project went before the Economic Vitality Leadership Council, which advises OEV, on Sept. 12. And while the members who were present unanimously supported funding SoMo Walls, there was no quorum.
SoMo Walls funding request prompts verbal spar between Matlow, developer
The war of words began late last week after Blueprint released its agenda for Thursday’s meeting and the seven-figure ask by Demirel. On Saturday, Matlow laid out a series of concerns about the project in one of several pointed tweets.
“After being turned away by banks, no biz plan and with a record of not completing projects after receiving govt $$$, I’m very concerned something criminal might be going on here,” Matlow wrote.
Matlow, when asked about the posts, said he was alarmed by how the request came out of the blue and was fast-tracked to go on Thursday’s Blueprint agenda. He expressed concerns that the proposed source of the funding, Blueprint’s Future Opportunity Leveraging Fund (FOLF), could be used as a “slush fund.”
SoMo Walls is located on South Monroe Street between Oakland Avenue and Harrison Street, directly across Proof Brewing Company.
“Anybody can come ask for any sort of money if they can say it has economic value,” Matlow said. “Then by the policy, that can be awarded ... That's not fair to the thousands of business owners doing business in our community, using their own money and putting their own credit on the line."
Blueprint materials say the leveraging fund has a current balance of $1.13 million but that the proposed 2024 budget would add another $1.35 million. If SoMo Walls is funded, it would leave about $723,000 in the account.
Demirel responded by saying Matlow has a history of misinforming the public “by distorting facts and using provocative rhetoric.” He said “every single one” of Matlow’s social media claims were “factually inaccurate and malicious.”
He also disputed Matlow’s claim that he has a record of not finishing projects after getting government assistance.
"Our financing partners have contributed over $6 million to this project, and the owners have provided an additional $3 million," Demirel said. "As mentioned in the agenda item, our request ... pertains to covering the existing funding gap, which will be paid back to OEV in three years."
Developer Bugra Demirel gives a behind the scenes tour of the construction of the SoMo Walls development on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023.
Matlow pointed to SoMo Walls’ five-page funding request to Blueprint that mentions how banks have “adapted a more cautious and risk-averse lending policy” and that consequently, “We find ourselves compelled to explore alternative avenues for securing the necessary funds to move forward.”
“Even they are saying no to funding this,” Matlow said of banks. “Why?”
Demirel said Matlow, who grew up on the south side, may not fully grasp financial challenges of investing in that part of town “given that his pizza shops are located in wealthy neighborhoods.”
'Smart development' or bad investment? Blueprint board members weigh in
Cummings, who chairs the Blueprint board, made up of all seven county commissioners and all five city commissioners, told the Tallahassee Democrat she’s heard from residents about the funding request. But she said she hasn’t heard “overwhelmingly for or against one or the other.”
She said she doesn’t plan to recuse herself because of her aide’s ties to Demirel’s Grow Tallahassee PC.
County Commissioner Carolyn Cummings listens to public comment during the Blueprint meeting at City Hall on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023.
“I would trust that all of the commissioners on the IA board would recognize if there's a potential conflict and put it on the record to get advice on whether or not they should recuse themselves from the vote,” she said.
County Commissioner David O’Keefe said he has concerns about the ask, adding, “My first thought here is when did Blueprint become the bank lender of last resort?”
He questioned the economic impact and compared the total number of proposed permanent jobs for SoMo Walls to Amazon, which recently opened a 630,000 square-foot, robotic fulfillment center in Tallahassee and received roughly $2.5 million in an incentive package from the Blueprint board.
County Commissioner David O'Keefe listens as another commissioner voices their opinion of the Northeast Park during a Blueprint meeting on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023.
He said Blueprint’s investment in Amazon, which created 1,000-plus jobs, amounted to $2,565 per job created. By comparison, he said if SoMo Walls’ request is granted, it would cost $50,265 for each of the 35 permanent jobs it’s estimated to produce.
“The return on investment is not there,” O’Keefe said.
City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox said she’s in favor of the funding request, saying that SoMo Walls will add to the “hustle and bustle” of existing south side businesses.
“I am a proponent of smart development on the south side, and I support this,” she said. “We need all-smart development on the south side, and I think ... this individual has not only invested their own resources but has also taken a risk. And many have not come to the south side to develop.”
SoMo Walls marks first development for controversial developer
SoMo Walls will be Demirel's first real estate project in Tallahassee. His only other commercial real estate project consists of new construction of a strip map mall anchored by a Family Dollar store at the Brothers Shopping Plaza in Marianna. His company, Demirel International, also completed renovations of a Comfort Suites hotel in May 2019 in Alanya, Turkey.
Developer Bugra Demirel gives a behind the scenes tour of the construction of SoMo Walls on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023.
In Tallahassee, Demirel's presence in both development and political circles has grown. In December, Dailey appointed him to serve on the Frenchtown-Southside CRA’s Citizen Advisory Committee. He said his work with the Grow Tallahassee PC has made him a political “nemesis” to some.
His project, located about a mile away from Florida's Capitol, SoMo Walls, is slated to bring commerce and art to a 2.3-acre city block on South Monroe between Oakland Avenue and Harrison Street.
The vision calls for retail and commercial space that includes 10-foot walls for artwork and large sidewalks to create a walkable space, an open-kitchen restaurant and 96-foot linear bar with four bartenders. The Walls Distilling Company will be the main attraction and connected to restaurant.
Tallahassee is already home to Ology Distilling – an Ology Brewing Company brand – that produces vodka, gin, small batch white rum and more. It first launched in 2019 and became a lifeline to locals on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic when sanitizer was scarce by by donating raw ingredients to make more than 400, 3-ounce bags of hand sanitizer.
The company started off small and has since grown to roughly 60 employees and four locations statewide, according to company officials. Yet, Ology Distilling, which declined to comment for this story, hasn’t received local funding from the CRA or IA to fuel its growth.
Right now, construction fence lines part of the SoMo Walls property's perimeter where rotating public art will be located. On any given day, about two dozen construction workers are on-site to complete the project's shell so future tenants can occupy their designated areas.
Walls Distilling Co. will be a distillery site anchoring the under-construction SoMo Walls redevelopment project.
Several businesses have submitted letters of intent, including a pizza shop, a coffee shop, an Asian sushi restaurant and the expansion of Burn Boot Camp, which already had a location off of Thomasville Road.
Demirel, when asked whether the project would move forward without Blueprint funding, said it would but that “the tenant side will potentially take a hit.”
Matlow said that according to the project’s own numbers, it already has enough funding were it not for the distillery, which he said adds $3.5 million to the price tag. He said the distillery shouldn’t be financed with public money.
Ben Wilcox, research director for the government watchdog Integrity Florida, also called the funding request into question.
"While there may not be anything illegal about a politically connected developer seeking taxpayer funding for his project, it certainly doesn't look good to the public," he said. "It has the appearance of pay to play and it causes taxpayers to lose confidence in the Blueprint process for selecting worthwhile projects."
Demirel expressed optimism that he’ll get support from Blueprint board members who grasp the challenges inherent in developing on the south side.
“They do completely understand why this ask is in place,” he said. “We are trying to do what the city put together and the county put together as a guideline, saying the investment should go towards that way; not toward Thomasville Road and toward Georgia.”
Contact Reporter TaMaryn Waters on Twitter. Follow @TaMarynWaters on X.
