Protected Silver Bluff Damaged at Home of Prominent Grove Developer

City officials are weighing response to partial demolition of the iconic limestone ridge at the waterfront mansion of Terra Group CEO David Martin.

On a Biscayne Bay shoreline known for multimillion-dollar homes with infinity pools and posh, modern courtyards, the Silver Bluff – a distinctive limestone outcropping that parallels the Coconut Grove coast — is a reminder of how the natural landscape once looked.

 So prized is this geologic feature that City of Miami officials in the 1970s declared stretches of the Silver Bluff protected, with any alterations requiring city approval.

And yet Coconut Grove’s Silver Bluff continues to shrink.

City records obtained by the Spotlight reveal that workers demolished a portion of the Silver Bluff within the North Grove waterfront property where David Martin — CEO of Grove-based real estate development firm Terra Group – is building a sprawling mansion for himself and his family.

The demolition, without the required permitting, occurred during construction of what city documents reference as “Casa Martin” — a 21,000-square-foot estate rising on a leafy stretch of Brickell Avenue just to the south of Alice C. Wainwright Park.

The damage was identified in late 2023 by the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, a non-profit group that monitors historically significant properties in coordination with the city. The bluff’s top two-and-a-half feet had been “reduced and scarified,” wrote the group’s executive director, Robert Carr.

David Martin did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Iris Escarra, an attorney representing Martin, says that part of the bluff was accidentally removed during a project to reduce the height of a nearby retaining wall. 

Once Martin learned of the damage, Escarra tells the Spotlight, he took “immediate steps to address” it and has asked city officials to approve a restoration plan and to issue a special “certificate of approval for after the fact damage” to the bluff.

“Unfortunately, as part of this work on the [concrete block and stucco] wall, portions of the top of the adjacent natural rock wall were inadvertently impacted. The lower portion of the natural rock remains intact and will continue to be protected,” Escarra says.

At its January 7 meeting the city’s Historic and Environmental Preservation (HEP) Board will consider a proposal brought forth by Martin to restore the damaged bluff.

HEP Board member Bob Powers is eager to hear the details. “The damage was documented on a site visit by somebody who gave a shit,” vents Powers, a longtime landscape designer and conservation advocate. “In this neighborhood, they’re building for the rich and famous. I’m surprised we caught the damage.”

Martin and his wife Christina bought the two-acre property from Dean Ziff, whose father founded the Sunglass Hut retail empire, for $14 million in 2015. A separate portion of the Silver Bluff had already been destroyed during the construction of the Ziff’s 14,000-square-foot mansion, Ca’Ziff, in the early 1990s, according to the Conservancy’s records.

In 2019 when the Martins demolished the Ziff house and began building their new waterfront home, a 45-foot-long stretch of the Silver Bluff still stood on the property, records show. 

This is not the first time Martin has run into problems with the city in connection with work at the Brickell Avenue property.  As previously reported by the Spotlight, the Martins were cited in 2023 for removing 71 trees without a permit. Records shows that in some instances the owners argued that incurable damage inflicted by windstorms left them with no choice but to remove the trees – a conclusion their own arborist was unable to corroborate. They were ordered to plant 59 new trees and agreed to pay $117,000 into the city’s Tree Trust Fund.

Martin is listed as a director of the Grove Tree-Man Trust, a nonprofit group that aims to improve the tree canopy in the Grove. He is also a member of Miami’s Sea Level Rise Task Force.

Martin’s Terra Group has been a leading player in the Grove’s high-end makeover in recent years with such projects as Park Grove, Grove at Grand Bay, Mr. C Residences, and the recently announced THE WELL Coconut Grove. Terra’s website says Martin is responsible for building a portfolio of residential and commercial real estate “valued in excess of $8 billion.”

Under the restoration proposal being brought before the HEP Board next week, the damaged bluff would be repaired with material to match the bluff’s limestone texture and color and return it to its original height. 

In a letter last August to city officials, Martin’s attorney wrote that Coconut Grove stonemason Joshua Billig, who has performed similar Silver Bluff restoration work at the Brickell Metrorail Station would oversee the project.

Damage to the Silver Bluff can result in a civil action from the city, with a maximum fine of $5,000 per violation, though it is unclear in city records if Martin is facing financial penalties or remediation requirements.

While the city code protects the Silver Bluff, it falls short of providing guidance on how to restore geological structures damaged by construction.

“The applicant’s request to remediate the damage by constructing a new mass above the remaining Silver Bluff is one with no local precedent,” wrote Kenneth Kalmis, chief of the city’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Division. Despite the lack of precedent, city staff are recommending HEP Board  approval of Martin’s proposal.

Kalmis did not respond to the Spotlight’s request for comment.

South Florida’s limestone ridge is believed to have formed roughly 120,000 years ago along the seafloor. As sea levels declined, the exposed ridge was shaped through exposure to weather elements resulting in its distinctive bluff-like appearance.

Sam Purkis, chairman of the Department of Marine Geosciences at University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, says that in addition to its historic and aesthetic value, the ridge is a natural barrier against flooding.

“Miami is pretty flat and featureless, and it’s this topography from the geological past which gives us the lumps and bumps in the city,” Purkis says.

 “It provides natural elevation, which is something we desperately need in Florida. Last thing we want to do is chisel our way down to sea level as the sea level rises.”