Terra Lands Construction Loan for $1B Miami Project

South Florida development firm Terra is moving ahead early next year with construction of Upland Park, a $1 billion mixed-use community across from the Dolphin Park-and-Ride/Transit Terminal in West Miami-Dade County. Upon full buildout, the project is anticipated to include more than 2,000 mid-rise and garden-style residential units.

SCALE Lending, Slate Property Group’s debt financing arm, provided a $170 million construction loan to Terra for the first phase of the project, which will feature 578 apartments.

In addition to residential uses, the 47-acre multi-phase development will include about 282,000 square feet of retail and approximately 414,000 square feet of commercial space. Construction of the first phase is expected to get underway in early 2025 when a formal groundbreaking ceremony will be held.

Upland Park will be the largest public-private transit-oriented development in Miami-Dade County’s history. It is designed to increase public transit ridership while anchoring the new East-West Corridor of the county’s SMART public transportation plan.

The county approved Terra, one of South Florida’s most active residential and commercial development firms, to develop the government-owned site in 2021. Terra signed a lease for the land and obtained a $35 million pre-construction loan from Dolphin KS Finance LLC in December 2022, according to Miami Today.  The developer then signed a utilities deal with the county during the summer of 2023 to provide water and sewer services to the site, the publication reported.

Upland Park will support multimodal modes of transportation and offer a transit alternative for commuters from surrounding residential areas of West Miami-Dade to major employment areas including Miami International Airport, the Health District, Downtown Miami and Brickell financial district. The project is expected to generate thousands of jobs and create millions of dollars in new rent and tax revenues for the county.

The project is designed by PPK Architects in collaboration with master plan architect Arquitectonica and urban planner Plusurbia Design.

Terra’s Florida growth

Led by CEO David Martin, Terra owns and operates a real estate portfolio valued at more than $8 billion. Since its launch in 2001, Terra has developed more than 5 million square feet of residential, commercial and mixed-use projects across South Florida. The firm is also developing CentroCity, which will include up to 1,200 apartments as part of a 38-acre mixed-use development in central Miami-Dade County, just west of Little Havana.

Terra also recently completed Grove Central, a transit-oriented mixed-use development with residential and retail uses at Coconut Grove, Fla., and Pines Garden at City Center, a garden-apartment community in Pembroke Pines, Fla.

In February, Terra and development partner New Valley refinanced Natura Gardens, a recently built 460-unit market-rate multifamily community in northwestern Miami-Dade County, with a $127 million permanent loan from an affiliate of MF1 Capital. The refinancing paid off an existing $65 million construction loan provided by Bank OZK in 2021.

In October 2023, the firm broke ground on THE WELL Bay Harbor Island, a 54-unit luxury condominium and office development in Miami’s Bay Harbor Island. The condo project is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.

SCALE’s Lending Momentum

The Upland Park loan is among $1 billion in closings announced by SCALE Lending this year. The lender’s other recent multifamily financings include a $135 million construction loan for two buildings totaling 405 units in the Bronx, N.Y.; a $75 million bridge loan for a newly built 294-unit property in Little Ferry, N.J.; and two cross-collateralized loans totaling $243 million in the Journal Square neighborhood of Jersey City, N.J.