Deli Lane Moves Into a 1926 Bank That Never Opened. The Newer Block Behind It Comes Down.

"We're almost 40, and the building's 100, so it's the icon meets the icon," Deli Lane co-founder Jahn Kirchoff told Miami New Times in late September. He was talking about the move from his restaurant's spot at 7230 SW 59th Ave. across the driveway into the Dorn Brothers Buildings at the corner of Sunset Drive and US-1.

For anyone in High Pines whose Saturday route north ends on Dorn Avenue, the move flips an assumption about how a downtown changes. The oldest structures on the block are being kept. The 1926 buildings were left out of the sale and are getting a renovation worth more than $3 million. The newer buildings around them, including one finished in 2000, are slated for demolition to make way for a 16-story apartment tower.

A bank that never opened its vault

Brothers Harold and Robert Dorn built the three-building complex in the 1920s. According to the New Times piece, it once housed the Dorn-Martin drugstore and South Florida Bank, and South Miami designated it a historic site in 2005.

The bank story explains why the corner looks the way it does. The Gables Courier reported that the hurricane of September 1926 badly damaged the Dorn Brothers bank building, so the bank never opened and its vault was never used. Kirchoff's office today is in the vault of the old South Miami Post Office, where Deli Lane has operated since it opened in 1988. SOMI Magazine says the old "Diebold" name is still over the vault door, and Kirchoff calls the move going from "one vault to another."

According to SOMI Magazine, the Amster family trust has owned the Dorn buildings since 1958 and is helping make the transition happen.

Which buildings stay and which come down

AvalonBay Communities paid about $22 million for the rest of the block. The Dorn buildings were excluded from that deal. Here is what each piece of the block faces, based on the reporting so far:

The replacement is Avalon South Miami II, a 16-story building with roughly 251 apartments, designed by Coral Gables-based Corwil Architects. Plans include ground-floor retail and a sixth-floor pool. South Miami commissioners approved the development agreement on February 17, 2026, by a 5–0 vote. As of the Gables Courier's August 6 report, more permits and city approvals were still needed before demolition or construction could start, and no demolition date had been announced.

Dorn Avenue gets rebuilt for the second time in 30 years

The brick street with the shaded patio is a planned design of its own. In 1995, South Miami's Hometown Plan widened the sidewalks for outdoor seating and added Chicago brick pavers, trees and imported street lighting. SOMI Magazine notes that at the time, Deli Lane had no outdoor seating and the street was lined with parked cars.

Victor Dover's firm designed that 1995 rebuild, and it was the firm's very first street design. He spoke to the commission about the new project, and SOMI Magazine reports that he described 59 Avenue as having gone "from being a forgotten alley to being the social center of the neighborhood." He also gave the commission a frank assessment of where the street stands now:

"Its age is showing; the Chicago bricks have been crumbling since the start, and thirty years later Dorn Avenue looks worn, its trees are vulnerable, and the whole thing is in need of a timely refresh."

Dover's firm is working with AvalonBay's landscape architect, Andres Arcila, on the new design. According to SOMI Magazine, the street will be rebuilt flush with the sidewalk at the same grade, so it is easier to cross. It gets slightly wider to meet a 15-foot Miami-Dade Fire Rescue requirement, keeps its slow-speed design and current direction of travel, and gets new pavers and replacement trees planted to grow larger than the current ones.

What the new Deli Lane looks like inside

The renovation preserves the outside of the building and rebuilds most of what's inside. According to Miami New Times, the building is getting new electrical and plumbing systems along with a complete interior redo. Plans for the space include:

• One name, two rooms. Deli Lane and Sunset Tavern merge as Deli Lane Café and Tavern, with Erez Design doing the interiors.
• A café side designed to feel almost outdoors, with a tropical look.
• A tavern built around the building's soaring ceilings and historic windows, with two trees planned inside the bar.
• A mezzanine for private events and meetings that seats about 65 to 70, decorated with Sunset Tavern nostalgia and University of Miami sports memorabilia.
• Late hours. The kitchen will stay open until midnight, with breakfast served all day and night.

The menu mostly carries over. "We'll add a few, we'll take off a few, but people, they love what we are, so we're not going to change who we are," Kirchoff told Miami New Times, and the restaurant is keeping its familiar plates. Five employees have been with Deli Lane for more than 30 years, and another eight to 10 for more than 20.

Timing is the open question. Deli Lane has to leave its current space by January 1. In the September report, Kirchoff said he expects the new restaurant to be ready before then, though deteriorated concrete columns in the century-old building had recently delayed construction. Earlier coverage had pointed to a 2027 opening. The safest expectation is a move around the turn of the year.

Sunset Place, a few blocks up, still has no start date

The same pattern holds at a larger scale a short walk up US-1. As of July 15, 2026, the Miami Herald found the Shops at Sunset Place still standing. Midtown said the redevelopment was still on but gave no demolition start date, and the city said final phase site plans had not been submitted. AMC and Barnes & Noble were still open at that point.

The plan is very large. According to the Herald, the Heatherwick Studio master plan the City Commission approved in 2024 calls for seven towers of 12 to 33 stories, some 1,500 residential units, a hotel, movie theaters and 150,000 square feet of shops and restaurants on the site's 10 acres. The Herald reports it is to be built out in phases over as much as 20 years. In September, Florida Politics reported that Miami-Dade commissioners had unanimously approved the Downtown SoMi Community Development District. The district covers 10.16 acres and can finance up to $149 million in infrastructure, paid back through assessments on property owners inside the district. The city has said streets and sidewalks across the site must be built before any individual project phase.

So within a few blocks, two projects are in very different places. Dorn Avenue has a deal, an approved tower and a historic corner already under renovation. Sunset Place has an approved infrastructure financing district but no demolition date.

October 31 starts at the Dorn corner

The City of South Miami and Miami Kids Magazine host Safe Streets Halloween on Saturday, October 31, 2026, from 4 to 7 p.m. It runs along Sunset Drive, or SW 72nd Street, from US-1 to 57th Avenue, with trick-or-treating, candy giveaways, games, music, haunted houses, prizes and an allergy-friendly candy station.

The route starts at US-1, which puts the Dorn buildings at its west end. Flight West, a live-fire, whiskey-focused restaurant at 5894 Sunset Dr., is just a few address numbers away. A little farther east, Delicias de España is at 5600 Sunset Dr. Miami New Times reported both open by late July 2026, so this is likely the first Halloween on Sunset Drive with both on the street.

Over the next few months, the corner of Sunset Drive and US-1 goes from a 1926 bank building that never opened to the new home of a 1988 restaurant with a kitchen open until midnight.

The Dorn Avenue deal shows something Miami Brokers Group sees often in South Miami-Dade. A historic designation, an exclusion carved out of a sale, or a street rebuilt at a developer's expense can shape what a property is worth for decades. If you own near downtown South Miami and want to know how projects like Avalon South Miami II and the Sunset Place redevelopment could affect your property, request a private valuation and consultation with Michael Diaz.