SoMo Walls developer Bugra Demirel is crying foul after the launch of a homegrown gin created through a collaboration involving his political nemesis, Tallahassee City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow.
Warhorse Whiskey Bar began serving its own barrel-aged gin in an arrangement with Ology Brewing Co., which operates a small-batch, craft distillery called Ology Distilling. The bar, one of several businesses owned by Matlow, began selling it late last month.
"It’s no secret that we love a good barrel-aged product, so we teamed up with @ology_distilling to put together this wonderful gin aged in Ology Bourbon and Rye casks to create a very special bottle to have at our bars," a Warhorse Facebook post promoting the endeavor states.
The gin's debut comes four months after the Blueprint Board approved a controversial $1.8 million funding request for SoMo Walls that will be anchored by an on-site distillery, Walls Distilling Company — a venture Matlow voted against after dragging it on social media as a conflict of interest for commissioners who benefited from Demirel's political activities with Grow Tallahassee in the 2022 election cycle.
Demirel told the Tallahassee Democrat the Warhorse/Ology gin demonstrates that it's Matlow who faced an ethical conflict. He maintains Matlow should have recused himself from the Blueprint vote if he was getting into the local distilled spirit business.
Demirel is consulting with his lawyer and considering options, including a possible state ethics complaint against the city commissioner.
"My initial reaction is that if this partnership was formed prior to our application, that this was definitely a conflict on Jeremy's part and he should have recused himself from all the conversations and discussions regarding our application," Demirel said.
In an interview with the Democrat, Matlow dismissed Demirel's comments and added, "It's a ridiculous accusation. I'm not in the distilling business."
"They are a supplier. It's like if you're selling Bradley's sausage and say 'I have Bradley sausage,' '' Matlow said of the Warhorse/Ology co-branded gin. "We don't have any financial partnership with Ology at all."
Under Florida law, local officials can't vote on a matter if it would lead to a special gain or loss for themselves, their private employers, their relatives or business associates. Instead, they must declare a conflict of interest and recuse themselves.
Back story behind bitter divide
SoMo Walls is a future retail and dining destination nearing completion on a 2.3-acre city block on South Monroe Street between Oakland Avenue and Harrison Street.
It is slated to feature retail and commercial space, 10-foot walls for artwork large sidewalks to create a walkable space, an open-kitchen restaurant called "The Monroe" and a 96-foot linear bar with four bartenders. The Walls Distilling Company will be the main attraction and connected to the restaurant.
The project hit delays and needed gap funding to cross the finish line, now slated for next month. Walls Distilling Company should be finished by March, Demirel said.
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.
In an interview with the Democrat, Demirel said much of the sales-tax money is going toward construction costs related to the building's infrastructure and not, for example, the distillery's equipment.
He takes issue with Matlow leading what he calls a smear campaign against the project, the first major new construction development on South Monroe in decades.
"If he was going to get into the liquor business, he should have stayed out of this entire conversation. But yet he, for a period of three weeks, went even too far to a point where he started smearing our project and attacking our investment from multiple standpoints," Demirel said.
The funding request became a hot topic for weeks as Matlow shared stinging jabs on X, formerly known as Twitter.
At the time, Matlow called it an overreach and “a recipe for disaster” that could “bring the FBI back to town," a comment hinting at the yearslong public federal corruption probe at City Hall that sent former City Commissioner Scott Maddox, his longtime aide Paige Carter-Smith and entrepreneur J.T. Burnette to prison for a bribery scheme involving city vendors and undercover FBI agents posing as developers.
In the end, Blueprint board members approved the one-time, non-competitive request in a split vote with the condition that it be a considered a "recoverable grant" in which Demirel will pay back $1 million. It was the first time the Blueprint agency had ever offered such a funding option.
Matlow stands behind comments and vote, unsure on timeframe of collaboration with Ology
Tensions between Demirel and Matlow have been brewing in recent years and has no immediate signs of ceasing.
Demirel chairs a political committee for the developer-backed Grow Tallahassee, which was a major force in the 2022 elections and spent thousands on mailers and ads supporting candidates including David Bellamy, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat Matlow. In the same year, Demirel was appointed to the Frenchtown-Southside CRA’s Citizen Advisory Committee by Mayor John Dailey, who often clashes with Matlow on the dais on a host of issues.
Matlow said Demirel is making a baseless claim, adding his bar is simply a customer of Ology and said, "That's all we are."
The "real issue," Matlow said, is that Demirel received $1.8 million in public money to fund his private business and had "no experience in the industry."
"I took issue with that. I still take issue with that, and I'm not going to change my position," he said.
Once it comes online, Bugra's distillery would compete with Ology.
Ology's distillery first launched in 2019 and produces vodka, gin, small batch white rum and more. The company started off small and has since grown to roughly 60 employees and four locations statewide, according to company officials.
Yet, Ology Distilling hasn’t received local funding from the Tallahassee Community Redevelopment Agency or Intergovernmental Agency, which oversees Blueprint funds and provided money for the SoMo Walls project, to fuel its growth.
When contacted by the Democrat, Ology co-founder Paul Woodward declined to comment.
When asked about when discussions began to collaborate with Ology, Matlow said his bartenders and mixologists at Warhorse "got together and were able to go over to Ology and work on the flavor profile of this gin."
"They thought about the cocktails that they wanted to make and what they like most in a gin and were able to go over and provide input and they crafted this barrel-aged gin," said Matlow, adding it's exclusively available at Warhorse and by the bottle at Ology.
Matlow couldn't provide a clear answer on whether discussions between Ology and Warhorse had occurred prior to the Blueprint vote. When asked about the timeline, he said, "I'd have to ask our bar manager to know exactly how long they have been working on it, because I'm not really sure."
Matow later emailed that the bar manager didn't want to get involved in a "political" story. Instead, Matlow wrote that “the timeframe of local businesses running a promotion isn’t relevant to public business."
"The fact is this is the third ethics allegation from the folks associated with Grow Tallahassee," he said, adding they were dismissed and "have already cost the people of Tallahassee ... on top of the $1.8 million Mr. Demirel received in government funding from the candidates he supported.”
As Demirel weighs filing a state ethics complaint, he contends Matlow targeted the SoMo Walls project in an attempt to paint a picture of "some sort of corruption scheme."
"It just takes away the shine from the development," Demirel said. "I believe there was definitely a negative PR campaign against it."
Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on Twitter.
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