Drive down Sunset Drive on a weeknight this August and you'll see almost the same picture you saw a year ago. The AMC marquee is lit. Cars circle the LA Fitness lot around 6 p.m. Kids spill out of GameTime clutching prize tickets. A couple doors down, on the corner that poured wine as Trattoria Sole for more than two decades, a new backlit bar throws warm light onto the sidewalk until well past midnight.
None of it looks like a demolition site. That's odd, because on paper, it should.
The Demolition That Hasn't Started
The Shops at Sunset Place has been South Miami's most talked-about redevelopment since Midtown Development bought the aging outdoor mall for $65.5 million back in 2021 and brought in London's Heatherwick Studio to reimagine it. The South Miami City Commission approved the plan unanimously: seven towers between 12 and 33 stories, more than 1,500 residences, a hotel, a movie theater, and nearly 150,000 square feet of shops and restaurants. Demolition was penciled in for the first quarter of 2026.
Here's the part that hasn't made it into most of the chatter. As of July 2026, The Real Deal reported that demolition still hadn't begun, with the project still waiting on permits and condo presales. The tenant list that headlines described as "reduced to a scant few businesses" is, in practice, longer than that framing suggests. AMC Theatres, LA Fitness, GameTime, Barnes & Noble, and Splitsville are all confirmed still operating on site.
Here's what that looked like on paper versus what's actually true this summer:
| What was announced | What's true as of summer 2026 |
|---|---|
| Demolition begins Q1 2026 | Still hadn't started as of July 2026 |
| Mall down to a handful of tenants | AMC, LA Fitness, GameTime, Barnes & Noble, and Splitsville all still open |
| First phase (streets, condo-hotel) delivered by 2029 | Still the stated timeline |
For anyone within walking distance, that gap matters more than the renderings do. The gym membership, the Tuesday matinee, the arcade night with the kids: none of it is running out a clock the way last year's press cycle implied. The eventual build-out is still coming. It just isn't the countdown most residents think they're living inside of.
The Corner That Didn't Wait for the Mall
While the mall's timeline slipped, the corner right next to it didn't sit still. Trattoria Sole held that intersection of Sunset Drive, Dorn Avenue, and US 1 for more than twenty years, and when it finally closed, the space didn't stay empty long. Flight West Miami quietly opened its doors in mid-May 2026 and held its grand opening celebration in July, bringing live-fire cooking and a whiskey program built around roughly 350 spirits to a spot South Miami had watched for over a year.
The kitchen is led by Executive Chef Juan Suazo, who trained under Chef Santiago Gomez of Cantina La Veinte, Tacology, and Palo Santo. Gomez shaped the menu direction before handing the line to Suazo, whose own résumé includes stints at Kyu and Komodo. The centerpiece is a Mibrasa charcoal oven that turns out a 32-day dry-aged ribeye and charred octopus with smoked chickpea hummus, with whiskey worked into glazes, sauces, and even the ice cream.
What stands out isn't the spirits list, though 350 bottles is a real number for a neighborhood spot. It's what the bar chose to name its drinks after. The Larkin honors the pioneering Larkin family who helped found the area. Botanical Oak nods to the city's gardens. The Crossroads is a direct reference to the historic intersection the restaurant now sits on. A restaurant brand that started in Rochester, New York, in 2016 chose to root its South Florida debut in local history rather than generic tropical branding.
General Manager Marwan Youbi put it plainly when the restaurant opened:
"Miami has an adventurous dining community, so we felt like our concept really belonged here."
The neighborhood didn't wait for seven towers to rise before it changed. It folded something new into a corner that's been serving dinner since before most of the current construction plans existed.
The Summer Calendar Nobody Canceled
The City of South Miami ran its second annual Taste of SoMi through the month of July 2026, and this year the program grew beyond restaurant promotions to include a curated retail campaign spotlighting boutiques, bookstores, and specialty shops across the district. Mayor Javier Fernández called it a chance for the community to come together and support the local restaurants and retailers that define the city, a sentiment that reads less like marketing copy and more like a mayor who has watched this event grow from its first year to its second.
That's one piece of a calendar that's kept running on schedule all year:
- SOMI ArtFest returned as a free juried show on February 21 and 22, 2026, drawing more than 100 artists from across the United States and Canada working in painting, photography, sculpture, and jewelry.
- Fourth of July at Palmer Park, at 6100 SW 67th Avenue, ran its usual 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. slot this year with fireworks at 9 p.m., untouched by any construction footprint to the west.
- Taste of SoMi wrapped its second July with an expanded retail push alongside the dining promotions.
None of these dates moved because a mall's demolition permit is still sitting on someone's desk.
Saturday Morning Hasn't Moved Either
If your weekend routine includes a stop at the South Miami Farmers Market in front of the library on Sunset Drive, that hasn't changed either. It's a small market by design, drawing produce from more than 15 Florida farms, and it runs year-round on Saturdays with SNAP and EBT accepted at the register. It's the kind of fixture that doesn't show up in redevelopment coverage because there's nothing dramatic to report. It's just still there.
What This Actually Means If You Live Here
Put the pieces together and the real story of South Miami this year isn't demolition. It's two things happening on parallel tracks. The mall's rebuild is real, but it's running well behind its own announced schedule, and the businesses inside it are still open for business today. Meanwhile, the parts of the neighborhood that don't wait on permits, a new restaurant on a storied corner, a farmers market, a July art show, a fireworks show at Palmer Park, kept moving on their own clock the entire time.
If you live near Sunset Drive, the practical read is simple. The corner you remember is still mostly the corner you remember, with one new bar worth checking out. The bigger change is still years out, and when it comes, it won't erase what's already there so much as build around it.
If you're weighing what any of this means for your own address, whether it's worth a fresh look at your home's value with a new restaurant next door or a mixed-use district eventually rising a block away, the Hidy Homes Team knows this stretch of South Miami block by block. Reach out anytime to talk through what's actually changing on your street versus what's just noise.
