Terra is a Coconut Grove-based developer founded in 2001 by David Martin and Pedro Martin. David Martin runs it as CEO. Terra says it has developed about $5 billion of real estate and has another $20 billion underway, spread across luxury condos, rental housing, retail and commercial projects, with Five Park, Miami Tropic and The Well Coconut Grove among its current jobs. Terra is co-developing Villa Miami with One Thousand Group, the first time the two firms have partnered. The Edgewater tower, branded by Major Food Group and designed by ODP Architects, topped out in late October. It’s a very low-density building for its height, so each residence has to carry a lot of the deal.
Terra publishes two different measures of its own scale, and it is worth knowing which is which. The firm’s about page puts its portfolio at more than five million square feet of residential and commercial real estate valued in excess of $8 billion, across every major asset class: multifamily apartments, luxury condominiums, single-family residences, retail and office space, hospitality and industrial. The same page separately credits CEO David Martin with a portfolio spanning more than eight million square feet. The two figures count different things and the site does not reconcile them.
The firm was founded by David Martin and Pedro Martin. David Martin runs development, design, construction, financing, marketing, sales and leasing. The executive bench is leaner than the project list suggests: a chief financial officer covering project accounting, asset management, legal and risk management; a senior vice president for investments and pre-development handling acquisition and capitalisation of ground-up work; and in-house counsel licensed in Florida and Georgia.
The most testable thing Terra says about itself concerns density. The firm describes following a right-sized approach, which it says can mean lower density, a smaller footprint, or preserving existing green space and natural resources rather than pursuing the highest possible profit. That is an unusual position for a South Florida developer to put in writing, and it can be checked against the built record.
The model runs on outside design talent. Terra frames multidisciplinary collaboration — bringing architects, designers, planners, engineers and builders together — as the core of how it works, and names collaborators including Yabu Pushelberg and Vicky Charles. Project pages credit that out plainly: Villa Miami lists ODP as architect, Charles & Co. on interiors, Enea Garden Co. on landscape and One Thousand Group as co-developer; Miami Tropic lists Arquitectonica as architect, Yabu Pushelberg on interiors, CLAD on landscape and Jean-Georges Vongerichten on the culinary programme.
Community involvement is listed too, historically including the Miami Children’s Health Foundation benefiting Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and the Freedom Tower.
The office is at 3310 Mary Street, Suite 302, in Coconut Grove rather than Brickell or downtown, which matches a firm whose roots and a good share of its current pipeline sit in the Grove. Enquiries go to info@terragroup.com or 305.416.4556.
