With little notice, Miami officials reassigned unused density credits from Mr. C Residences to The WELL Coconut Grove, allowing the proposed luxury condo project to increase its unit count by 50% — a first-of-its-kind maneuver with no clear basis in city code.
The proposed luxury condo project The WELL Coconut Grove can build 50% more housing units than typically allowed after city officials quietly signed off on a plan to transfer unused density credits from another luxury condo project in Center Grove, Mr. C Residences — despite no city rules or programs that authorize such a maneuver.
The transfer is the first of its kind, a city spokesperson confirmed to the Spotlight.
Under the plan, approved last December, Historic and Environmental Preservation Division chief Ken Kalmis amended a six-year-old development rights document — known as a certificate or transfer, or COT — to designate The WELL as the recipient of 66 units of density credits initially acquired and assigned to Mr. C in 2020.
The designation will allow The WELL to increase the housing unit count in its proposed eight-story tower from 130 to 196.
Both Mr. C and The WELL are projects developed by Coconut Grove-based Terra Group.
Miami’s zoning code limits the number of housing units that can be built on a parcel of land, but it also allows developers to increase those limits by purchasing excess housing density from projects elsewhere in the city — either from affordable housing developments that did not maximize their allowable density or from historic properties whose owners committed to preserving and improving the buildings.
Read more: City to Vote on Shifting Housing Density From Affordable Projects
In 2019, this so-called Transfer of Development Density program allowed Terra Group to propose 301 housing units at Mr. C Residences on a site otherwise zoned for 227.
To make up the difference, Terra purchased 74 units of excess density from a historic structure in downtown Miami, with those credits formally assigned to the project in June 2020.
Read more: How Mr. C Got So Big
But as preconstruction condo sales surged, Terra Group redesigned the project, replacing a proposed rental tower with a second condo tower that contained larger, but fewer, overall units — leaving unused the bulk of the historic density credits it acquired.
After downsizing, Mr. C was stuck with a surplus of credits it could not use.
In a recent email exchange with the Spotlight, a city spokesperson explained that only the “receiving site” — the property that acquires the density credits — can use them, and that the credits are not transferable: “If a property receives [transferred development density] units but uses only a portion, the remaining units cannot be used.”
But last December, Kalmis, who oversees the historic density transfer program, sidestepped the problem by simply changing the 2020 certificate of transfer to reassign the bulk of credits to The WELL, leaving only a handful to Mr. C.
His rationale? A clerical error.
In city records reviewed by the Spotlight, Kalmis describes the amended certificate as a “corrective” measure fixing a years-old mistake. The original 2020 document, he insists, “did not correctly include” The WELL as the “intended” recipient of the majority of credits.
But the same records also appear to contradict that explanation.
The city’s 2020 transfer certificate and supporting documents — including the Letter of Intent requesting the density credits — reference only the Mr. C property and make no mention of The WELL or any other project or location.
Further undercutting the city’s explanation is the simple fact that The WELL did not yet exist in 2020 — not in name, design or corporate structure. Nor did any other proposed development at that location.
The project traces its origins to a March 2021 property acquisition by a Miami Beach company that later brought Terra Group on as a development partner.
Terra Group CEO David Martin declined to comment for this story, referring the Spotlight to the firm’s outside attorney, Iris Escarra.
In an email exchange, Escarra would not confirm that The WELL had always been the intended receiving site and did not address the fact that no such project existed in 2020, saying only that Kalmis “corrected the previous certificate” after a “complete new review process.” (Without explanation, that review has not been released by the city following a public request request).
Kalmis did not respond to a request for comment, and a list of questions submitted repeatedly to Director of Communications Helena Poleo went unanswered.
The density-transfer issue is not the only controversy surrounding The WELL. Last December, city officials confirmed that the project would be authorized to rise to eight stories — three more than zoning typically allows — under a controversial zoning amendment, since repealed, that expanded bonus height allowances near transit corridors.
Read More: The WELL: How 5 Became 8
A group of local residents has challenged the city’s determination in court, arguing that the now-repealed ordinance creating the bonus height was unlawfully adopted and that The WELL and other nearby projects should never have been granted vested rights to build above base-level height limits.
Read more: Judge Asked to Halt Permits for The WELL in Height Dispute
Construction on Mr. C’s twin 21-story towers was completed in June 2024.
The WELL, which has yet to receive a building permit, is forecasting completion in early 2028.
In her email, Terra Group attorney Escarra said the developer paid $10,000 per unit for the density credits purchased from the downtown historic structure.
At The WELL — where those credits will now yield 66 additional luxury condos — preconstruction prices range from roughly $1.4 million to more than $8 million.
