Drive S. Atlantic Avenue between Dunlawton and the Shores Resort right now and you'll pass two storefronts that have been sitting closed for the better part of a year, sandwiched between presale signs for two towers that haven't poured a slab yet. Their planned restaurant and grocery replacements have not opened, while nearby tower projects are at different stages.
This fall, the key questions are when the storefront replacements will open and how their timelines compare with nearby projects.
Two Closures About a Mile Apart
The old Red Lobster at 3162 S. Atlantic Avenue closed after nearly 40 years in that spot, directly across from the beach with the kind of parking lot you don't find on new construction anymore. As Hometown News reported, the Winn-Dixie at 2200 S. Atlantic Avenue, a little over a mile north, closed its doors on November 30, 2025, after standing on that corner since 1956. Combined, that's more than a century of continuous retail and dining history on one road, gone within roughly the same twelve-month window.
Both spaces have known successors. Neither has opened yet.
Longtime Winn-Dixie shoppers Ed and Sue Pease had been going to that store for 20 years and told Hometown News they noticed the shelves emptying out before they understood why. Ed Pease's read on it was simple: he figured something was changing, but had not been told what.
The Restaurant Aiming for the Seasons 52 Crowd
SoNapa Grille is taking over the old Red Lobster space, and the deal has a distinctly local backstory. Owner Adam Barringer, who also has SoNapa locations in New Smyrna Beach, Ormond Beach and Jacksonville Beach, says he was introduced to the site by the Daytona Beach Shores city manager and economic development director, a connection that traced back to his time serving as mayor of New Smyrna Beach. Before signing anything, Barringer toured the space with Kevin Purucker, co-owner of The Cracked Egg, the breakfast diner that's been anchoring S. Atlantic Avenue at 3280 S. Atlantic Ave since 2008. Their verdict on the old Red Lobster shell: good bones, but tired, and in need of a full rebuild.
The concept itself skews upscale for the neighborhood. As Business Debut reported, Barringer described the atmosphere he's going for as closer to a J. Alexander's or a Seasons 52 than a beach-town casual spot, with a Northern California wine-country menu, hand-cut steaks, and a full bar built around Sonoma and Napa producers. The room is planned for 150 to 160 indoor seats plus another 20 outside, with dinner-only hours that skip Sundays entirely.
Here's the part that matters if you're the one driving past it every week: back in February, Barringer was targeting an August 15 opening. As of a Daytona Beach tourism office announcement dated August 13, the language has already softened to "this fall." If you'd circled August 15 on your calendar, you circled the wrong date.
ALDI Plans for the Former Winn-Dixie
ALDI is converting the shuttered Winn-Dixie into one of its no-frills discount stores, part of a chain-wide push after ALDI's acquisition of Southeastern Grocers and the Winn-Dixie and Harveys banners. Daytona Beach Shores Mayor Nancy Miller had been asking for this publicly, telling Hometown News at an ALDI ribbon-cutting in Port Orange that she'd love to see one land in the Shores.
She may still be waiting. Stewart Cruz, the city's community services director, said last fall that the permit application had incomplete components still under review. As of the most recent reporting, ALDI has not announced an opening date for the Daytona Beach Shores location, even though the store has now sat empty for the better part of a year and ALDI has already opened conversions in Deltona, Ormond Beach and Port Orange during that same stretch.
So the two most talked-about storefront changes on this road, one aimed at an elevated dinner crowd and one aimed at everyday grocery budgets, are both still awaiting openings. SoNapa has slipped behind its timeline; ALDI has not announced an opening date.
| Project | Address | Replaced | Original Target | Status as of August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SoNapa Grille | 3162 S. Atlantic Ave | Red Lobster (~40 yrs) | Aug. 15, 2026 opening | Pushed to "this fall" |
| ALDI | 2200 S. Atlantic Ave | Winn-Dixie (since 1956) | No firm date ever set | Still no announced opening date |
Meanwhile, Two Tower Projects Have Their Own Timelines
Contrast that with what's happening at the higher end of the same road. Aston Martin Residences, an 18-story, 86-unit branded tower from developer Valor Properties, is in presales now at 3411 S. Atlantic Avenue, with an estimated completion date of 2029 attached to what's been described as a $400 million project. A few blocks south at 1299 S. Atlantic Avenue, Pearl Beach Club, a 24-story luxury hotel and residence, is targeting an opening sometime in 2026 or 2027.
Neither of those projects has finished construction either. But presales for the Aston Martin tower are already underway. Taken together, these projects have no single timetable for this stretch.
If you live in the Shores, that's worth knowing as you follow the projects along this stretch of road.
What to Actually Expect This Fall
If you're planning around any of this, a few practical notes. The Cracked Egg Diner is still open at 3280 S. Atlantic Ave and remains the connective tissue in this whole story, since it was Kevin Purucker who first walked SoNapa's owner through the old Red Lobster shell. Expect it to stay the default breakfast stop until SoNapa's dinner-only doors actually open, whenever "this fall" turns out to mean.
For groceries, don't wait on the ALDI conversion. With no announced opening date as of the latest reporting and a permit process that was still incomplete as of last fall, the Port Orange and Ormond Beach ALDI locations remain your nearest bet for now.
Not everything on this stretch has slipped, for what it's worth. The playground at Frank Rendon Park, the beachfront park at 2705 S. Atlantic Ave with more than 130 parking spaces and panoramic ocean views from its elevated grounds, was under construction earlier this year and was expected to reopen to the public in May 2026. Small, but it's the one project on this road that appears to have landed close to its original timeline.
The Takeaway for Anyone Who Lives Here
None of this is a reason to worry about the neighborhood. These projects are at different stages: SoNapa is targeting a fall opening, ALDI has not announced an opening date, and the tower projects have their own schedules. If you've been wondering why the old Red Lobster corner still has plywood in the windows, the planned restaurant replacement there has not opened yet.
The Cook Group keeps a close eye on exactly this kind of neighborhood-level change along the coast, not because every reader needs a real estate transaction, but because knowing what's happening on your street matters. If you ever do want a second opinion on local developments in Daytona Beach Shores, from the restaurant scene to the skyline, schedule a private consultation and we'll tell you what we're seeing on the ground.
