Building facts
- Address
- 1573 Pennyslvania Avenue
- Neighborhood
- South Beach
- Floors
- 2
- Status
- Completed
- Pricing
- Starting at $325,000
Verified 24 August 2026Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places2 sources
Don Bar — photography to follow
Building facts
- Address
- 1573 Pennsylvania Avenue
- Neighborhood
- Miami Beach
- Year built
- 1937
- Floors
- 2
- Residences
- 21
- Status
- Delivered — condominium in a 1937 building
Key Takeaways
- Don-Bar holds 21 homes across two street numbers, — 1571 and 1573 Pennsylvania Avenue on Miami Beach, one condominium declaration split by the county into 13 one-bedroom and 8 two-bedroom units, 440 to 850 square feet.
- Eight qualified sales closed here over the last four years, — a turnover of one home in 10 each year — the most actively traded building drafted so far in this cluster.
- 18 of the building’s 21 homes have a documented round trip, — and every single one sold for more than the previous owner paid — a 100% gain rate, median +226.8%, over a median 28.7-year hold.
- Median $/sq ft ran from $517 in 2023 to $471 in 2025, — with 2024’s single sale at $444 pulling the middle of that span down before 2025 partly recovered.
- The building’s all-time record sale is $405,000, — set in April 2022 on an 810 square foot home at $500 a square foot — just outside the current four-year window.
- 2026 assessed values run $179,816 to $280,940, — a median of $198,099 across the 21 homes.
1573 Pennsylvania Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida 33139 | Neighborhood: South Beach
Twenty-One Homes Spanning Two Pennsylvania Avenue Addresses
I pulled every folio the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser has on file for Don-Bar, which the county addresses at both 1571 and 1573 Pennsylvania Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139, under a single subdivision, “DON-BAR CONDO.” Both street numbers belong to the same declaration — 10 folios at 1573 and 11 at 1571 — and the declared common-element shares for all 21 sum to exactly 100.0000% of the whole, so I’m confident the building is fully accounted for.
Every one of the 21 folios is a residential home; there are no commercial, parking, cabana or storage folios to exclude. The county codes 13 of the 21 as one-bedroom and 8 as two-bedroom. Sizes run 440 to 850 square feet, median 570, with a handful of repeated floorplates — 790 square feet (4 homes), 520 square feet (4 homes), 540 square feet (4 homes), plus smaller clusters at 570, 850 and 600 square feet — together accounting for 18 of the building’s 21 homes.
On the 2026 tax roll, assessed values run from $179,816 to $280,940 across the 21 homes, with a median of $198,099.
I don’t have a confirmed architect, exact construction year, story count or amenity list for this building from any primary designation record, and I’d rather say so than fill it in from a listing site. Pennsylvania Avenue sits inside the mapped footprint of the Miami Beach Architectural District, the 1979 National Register historic district covering most of South Beach — but I have not been able to confirm this specific building’s individual contributing status, architect or year built against a primary source. See the verified strip below for exactly what I checked.
Eight Sales in Four Years — the Most Active Building in This Cluster
| Year | Qualified sales | Median price | Median $/sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 5 | $276,800 | $517 |
| 2024 | 1 | $240,000 | $444 |
| 2025 | 2 | $270,000 | $471 |
| 2026 to date | 0 | — | — |
Eight qualified sales closed at Don-Bar across 2023 through 2025 — a turnover of one home in 10 each year, genuinely more liquid than any other building drafted so far in this cluster, most of which have shown one sale or fewer per year over the same span. No qualified sale has closed in 2026 through my pull date. Median $/sq ft ran $517 in 2023 (on five sales, the year’s real volume), then $444 on 2024’s single sale, then $471 across 2025’s two sales — with only one or two sales in 2024 and 2025 each, I’d treat that dip and partial recovery as evidence of which specific units happened to trade in a given year more than a genuine market swing; five sales in one year is a reasonable sample, one or two is not.
The highest total price inside the four-year window is $317,000 (March 2023, a 790 square foot home, $401 a square foot); the highest rate per square foot inside the window is $532 (August 2023, on a smaller 520 square foot home for $276,800). Neither is the building’s true all-time record — that belongs to a sale just outside this window, described next.
Why Has Every Documented Round Trip at Don-Bar Made Money?
Zooming out past the four-year window, Don-Bar’s full county sale history carries 79 qualified sales going back to the early 1990s — a genuinely deep record for a 21-home building. The all-time record sale is $405,000, set in April 2022 on an 810 square foot home at $500 a square foot, edging out a $342,000 sale from June 2021 on a larger 850 square foot unit ($402/sf).
18 of the building’s 21 homes have a documented round trip, and the answer to the question in this section’s heading is stark: every single one of the 18 sold for more than the previous owner paid. Not one loss. The median gain is +226.8%, over a median 28.7-year hold, with a range from +42.2% to +384.6%. The pattern behind those numbers is straightforward once you see the dates: most of the building’s original purchase legs cluster in 1991 and 1992, at prices from $47,200 to $93,500 for units whose later resale legs run $87,000 to $405,000. A buyer who purchased here in the early 1990s and held for two to three decades has, on this record, always come out ahead — though I’d note plainly that a three-decade hold is a very different commitment than a five-year one, and this data says nothing about what a buyer entering today should expect over a shorter horizon.
Who Don-Bar Suits, and Who It Doesn’t
Don-Bar suits a buyer who wants genuine liquidity relative to its size — eight sales in four years across 21 homes is real, usable trading volume for pricing a purchase or a sale with some confidence, more so than most buildings in this cluster. It also suits a long-horizon buyer: every documented long hold here has been profitable on the county’s own record, even though most of those holds ran two to three decades, not two to three years.
It suits buyers badly who are shopping specifically for a large floorplate — the building’s homes top out at 850 square feet, and 18 of the 21 sit at or below 790. It also suits buyers badly who need documented architectural pedigree in hand; I could not confirm an architect, year built or historic-designation status for this specific building from a primary source, and a buyer who needs that on paper should verify it directly with Miami Beach’s planning department.
If you are selling: price off the building’s own recent $444-$532 per-square-foot range from 2023-2025 rather than the April 2022 record of $500/sf, which is now more than a year old, and be prepared to point to the building’s 100% gain rate on documented round trips — it is a genuine, sourced selling point, not a marketing claim.
Don-Bar — Frequently Asked Questions
How many homes are in Don-Bar?
The Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser records 21 residential condominium folios spanning 1571 and 1573 Pennsylvania Avenue, Miami Beach — 13 one-bedroom and 8 two-bedroom homes, 440 to 850 square feet.
How actively does Don-Bar trade?
Eight qualified sales closed over the last four years, a turnover of one home in 10 each year — more active than most buildings in this Art Deco cluster.
What is the record sale at Don-Bar?
$405,000, set in April 2022 on an 810 square foot home, $500 a square foot. Within the current four-year window, the highest sale is $317,000 (March 2023).
Do owners at Don-Bar tend to gain or lose money on resale?
Every one of the building’s 18 documented round trips sold for more than the previous owner paid — no losses on record. The median gain is +226.8% over a median 28.7-year hold.
Are prices at Don-Bar rising or falling?
Median $/sq ft ran $517 in 2023, $444 in 2024 (a single sale) and $471 in 2025. With only one or two sales in 2024 and 2025, I’d treat that as which units happened to trade rather than a confirmed trend.
How big are the units at Don-Bar?
Homes run 440 to 850 square feet, median 570. Four floorplates — 790, 520 and 540 square feet — together account for 12 of the building’s 21 homes.
Is Don-Bar a designated historic building?
It sits within the mapped footprint of the Miami Beach Architectural District (National Register, 1979), but I could not confirm its individual architect, year built or contributing status against a primary source.
Sources and further reading
- Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser — Property Search (21 folio records for 1571 & 1573 Pennsylvania Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139, retrieved 24 August 2026)miamidadepa.gov
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places — Miami Beach Architectural District, reference #79000667, listed 14 May 1979npgallery.nps.gov
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Don Bar in the Miami Beach Architectural District
The Miami Beach Architectural District, almost always called the Art Deco District, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 1979. It runs from the Atlantic Ocean west to Alton Road, and from 6th Street north to the Collins Canal and Dade Boulevard. Depending on how you count, it holds between the over 800 properties built between 1923 and 1943 cited by the City of Miami Beach and roughly 960 historic buildings counted elsewhere. Either way it is the largest collection of Art Deco architecture anywhere in the world.
What it costs to own here: the three-story rule
Florida milestone inspection requirements apply to condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or more in height, at 30 years of age, or 25 years where the local enforcement agency cites conditions such as salt-water proximity (Fla. Stat. 553.899). HB 913 (2025) refined the trigger to buildings with three or more occupied stories, excluding garages and non-habitable areas, and applied the same threshold to Structural Integrity Reserve Studies, required every 10 years.
At 2 stories, Don Bar falls below that statutory threshold. It is not compelled to carry out milestone inspections or fund a Structural Integrity Reserve Study on a mandated schedule. In a market where Miami condo special assessments in 2026 commonly run $30,000 to $75,000 per unit, with some projects exceeding $100,000 per unit, that is a material difference in carrying cost.
The counterweight matters just as much. Exemption from a mandated inspection is not exemption from physics. A building of this age still needs a roof, plumbing, electrical and a wind-rated envelope. The difference is that no statute forces the association to study and fund that work on a timetable. Read the reserve balance, the minutes and the maintenance history yourself, and budget for what a study would have found. Lower mandated cost, higher personal diligence burden.
Renovating in a historic district
Interiors are generally straightforward. Exterior alterations are not: work visible from the street in a Miami Beach local historic district goes through the city Historic Preservation Board review process, codified in Miami Beach Code Chapter 118, Article X. Miami-Dade is also a High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, so impact-rated windows and doors are required, and inside the district those products have to satisfy preservation review on appearance as well as code. Budget more time than a comparable renovation off the beach, and use trades who have been through the process before.
There is a second layer buyers routinely miss. Local Miami Beach designation governs day-to-day alterations. National Register listing is what triggers the stronger state-law protections under SB 1730 and SB 1526. Many buildings here are locally designated but not individually National Register listed, and the two are not interchangeable. Ask which applies to this specific building before assuming it is protected.
Is the district protected from demolition?
Substantially, yes. The Florida Resiliency and Safe Structures Act (SB 1526, 2024), which allows owners to demolish and replace certain non-conforming coastal buildings, explicitly excludes structures on the National Register and several locally designated Miami Beach neighbourhoods including Ocean Drive and the Art Deco District. The 2025 Live Local update, SB 1730, effective July 1 2025, caps development inside National Register districts at the maximum height allowable within a three-quarter-mile radius and permits facade replication. Its protections attach to National Register districts rather than to buildings that are only locally designated.
Why supply here can never grow
The historic district southern boundary is 6th Street. That one line explains the entire South Beach price map. Everything south of it, including Continuum, Apogee, Portofino Tower, Icon South Beach, Murano Grande and Five Park, sits outside the preservation overlay, which is why 40-plus-story towers were legally possible there and nowhere in the blocks immediately north. Inside the district, the two and three-story stock is permanently capped. New Art Deco cannot be built. It can only be restored.
The neighborhood around Don Bar
- Art Deco Welcome Center, 1001 Ocean Drive, the Miami Design Preservation League base. Daily 90-minute walking tours run $35 for adults and $30 for students and seniors; a self-guided audio tour is $25.
- Ocean Drive, the photographic core of the district, including the Colony Hotel at 736 Ocean Drive and its much-photographed neon.
- Espanola Way, three blocks of Mediterranean Revival, pedestrianised at weekends.
- Lincoln Road, the pedestrian mall from Washington to Alton, designed by Morris Lapidus in the 1960s.
- Collins Avenue, the Streamline Moderne hotel corridor running north toward the Raleigh redevelopment at 18th Street.
Who buys in the Art Deco district
Three buyers, consistently. Design-motivated primary and second-home purchasers, for whom this is the only walkable, ocean-adjacent product in Miami Beach at anything near this price point. Cost-conscious buyers deliberately targeting sub-three-story buildings to stay outside the milestone and reserve regime. And preservation-minded owners who treat design review as the price of a protected streetscape rather than as an obstacle.
Two practical notes. South Beach transacts at a high cash rate, and small older condominium buildings are frequently non-warrantable for conventional financing, so confirm financing early rather than late. And adaptive reuse has decisively proved the value thesis: the Shore Club restored its 1939 Art Deco building alongside a new tower and put a penthouse under contract north of $120 million, while the Rosewood Raleigh redevelopment is asking $150 million. Historic fabric is now the premium, not the constraint.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the Miami Beach Art Deco District?
The Miami Beach Architectural District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 1979. It runs from the Atlantic Ocean west to Alton Road and from 6th Street north to the Collins Canal and Dade Boulevard. Counts range from the City of Miami Beach figure of over 800 properties built between 1923 and 1943 to roughly 960 historic buildings, depending on the counting method. It is the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world.
Can you actually buy an Art Deco condo in Miami Beach, or are they all hotels?
You can buy them, but most of the famous Ocean Drive frontage is hotels. Genuine residential Art Deco condominiums cluster one to three blocks inland, on Meridian, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Jefferson and Euclid Avenues and along Espanola Way. A third category, condo-hotels, can be owned but operates as hospitality and is underwritten differently. Always confirm which of the three a specific building is before you make an offer.
Does Don Bar have to do Florida milestone inspections?
No. Florida milestone inspections and Structural Integrity Reserve Studies apply to condominium and cooperative buildings three stories or more in height, under Fla. Stat. 553.899 as refined by HB 913 in 2025. At 2 stories this building falls below that threshold and is not compelled to inspect or fund reserves on a statutory schedule. That lowers mandated cost, but it raises your own diligence burden, because the underlying maintenance need does not disappear.
Are Miami Beach Art Deco buildings protected from demolition?
Substantially. Florida 2024 Resiliency and Safe Structures Act, SB 1526, which allows demolition and replacement of certain non-conforming coastal buildings, explicitly excludes National Register structures and several locally designated Miami Beach neighbourhoods including Ocean Drive and the Art Deco District. The 2025 Live Local update, SB 1730, added height caps and facade replication rules inside National Register districts. Note that protections differ between National Register listing and local-only designation.
Can I renovate an Art Deco condo in Miami Beach?
Interiors are generally straightforward. Exterior alterations visible from the street go through the City of Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board review process under Chapter 118, Article X of the city code. Miami-Dade is a High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, so impact-rated windows and doors are required, and inside a historic district those products must also satisfy preservation review on appearance. Allow more time than an equivalent renovation elsewhere in the city.
Why does South of Fifth have towers when the Art Deco District has none?
Because the historic district southern boundary is 6th Street. Everything south of that line, including Continuum, Apogee, Portofino Tower, Icon South Beach, Murano Grande and Five Park, sits outside the preservation overlay, so high-rise development was legally possible there and not in the blocks immediately north. That single boundary explains both the South of Fifth premium and why Art Deco district supply is permanently capped.
Is financing harder on a small older Art Deco building?
Often, yes. Small older condominium buildings are frequently non-warrantable for conventional financing, which is one reason South Beach transacts at a high cash rate. Establish financing early rather than late, and ask the association for the documents a lender will want before you are under contract.
Related coverage
Part of Art Deco Miami Beach Condos.