David Martin

David Martin’s Terra has become synonymous with the current evolution of South Florida as it continues to expand, diversify and set new records.

Over the past year, Terra cemented its position as one of the region’s most aggressive and wide-ranging developers, executing record-breaking financings and pushing some of the market’s most high-profile projects. 

Martin said breaking ground on the convention center hotel in Miami Beach best defined 2025, which he called an important milestone for both Terra and that city. The $392 million construction loan for Terra’s and Turnberry’s 800-key Grand Hyatt Miami Beach unlocked a long-delayed headquarters hotel that will allow the city to host top-tier conventions and help expand the economic impact for marquee events like Art Basel.

Martin said the project exemplifies Terra’s long-term, civic-minded strategy of large-scale development tied directly to public infrastructure and regional growth. And that theme carried across Terra’s capital stack in 2025 and into 2026. 

Terra and Fortune International closed on a record-breaking $205 million oceanfront acquisition in Key Biscayne, positioning the site for a luxury condominium redevelopment. In Coconut Grove, Terra and AB Asset Management secured a $410 million construction loan — the largest in the neighborhood’s history — for a 194-unit boutique luxury condo project already more than half presold. And in Bay Harbour Islands, Terra landed a $238 million refinancing for the Well, a mixed-use development in one of Miami-Dade’s most affluent enclaves.

Terra also moved into more complex repositionings. For example, the firm assumed the ground lease at the Miami Seaquarium and plans to reimagine the 38-acre waterfront site as a mixed-use retail destination.

“We love placemaking projects,” Martin said, describing Terra’s strategy as working with communities and stakeholders. “[It’s about] hacking capitalism … to solve some of the challenges that our city has.”

Now in its 26th year, Terra operates with what Martin calls a “long-term approach in South Florida,” spanning Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, while hitting retail, office, hospitality and residential. 

In an era defined by volatility, rising costs and capital constraints, Terra has further established itself as one of the most influential developers shaping modern South Florida.