David Martin.
David Martin
Co-founder and CEO at Terra
Between the time that we interviewed Terra’s David Martin, and started writing his entry for this year’s Power South Florida, Terra closed a deal that most people in commercial real estate would envy: a $103.2 million inventory loan from Apollo Global Management for Five Park, the $1 billion, 227-unit condominium at 500 Alton Road in South Beach that Terra developed with Russell Galbut and completed construction on in December. (Which is also one of the tallest buildings in South Florida.)
Par for the course. Terra’s name is on some of the Sunshine State’s most ambitious projects, and last year was no exception.
“2024 was, I think, about execution,” Martin said. Work got underway on various projects, including Upland Park, Terra’s 47-acre, transit-oriented project that’s part of Miami’s SMART plan, essentially a small city near Dolphin Station.
“We got the permit and financing for the Centro City, which is around 360,000 square feet [in the first phase] and 460 apartments west of Little Havana in Miami.” (That financing, by the way, was a whopping $291 million.)
“And Mr. C in Coconut Grove.” (231 units and being developed in collaboration with Ignazio and Maggio Cipriani.)
As for 2025? “It’s going to be more execution — and a lot more creative visioning.”
Terra, along with Frisbie Group, was recently selected to redevelop Boca Raton City Hall into a 2.5 million-square-foot, mixed-use complex. Along with the Major Food Groups team, Terra nabbed a $285 million construction loan to build a 56-story, 70-unit condominium called Villa in Edgewater. And, along with BH3 Management and Merrimac Ventures, Terra is planning condos on Watson Island.
Oh, and did we mention that Martin recently filed plans to build condos and a hotel on the old Deauville Beach Resort site on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach? Well, he did!
There’s a lot more that Terra is working on and eyeing, but we’ll leave it there. “Miami is so global,” Martin said. “We have demand nationally, internationally and locally. … We’re in a lucky place.”
