Managing partner for Salt Capital Equity Group, owner of Cache Real Estate, and broker with Real Broker, LLC, Terrica Smith Joins Discover Lafayette to teach us how to not only survive after trauma, but thrive. Smith shares details about her affordable housing project in North Lafayette, Madeline Cove. She also sheds light on her survival story and how God, determination and pure grit led her to her bright future.

Smith is the driving force behind the Madeline Cove project, a 15-acre mixed-used development planned for Madeline Avenue in North Lafayette, in the University Corridor between downtown and I-10. The community was originally started almost 10 years ago, by out-of-state developers, right after Hurricane Katrina. The original developers spent money and time installing all of the ‘hard costs’ such as utilities, drainage, etc.

Ironically, Smith was slated to be the listing agent for homes to be built in Madeline Cove as she was newly embarking on her career in real estate after earning her real estate license in 2006. After the Madeline Cove project went bankrupt, the property was left vacant; in the ensuing years, it became a dumping ground for old tires, furniture and mounds of garbage. “It was disgusting…..you couldn’t drive through without running over garbage,” Smith said.

Madeline Cove, depicted at left, after sitting abandoned for over ten years, had become a dumping ground for trash. At right, Terrica Smith standing with a depiction of a street within her passion project, Madeline Cove.

After successfully building her career in the real estate world, Smith wanted to tap into the possibilities that North Lafayette had to offer. She mentioned that not many people were interested in the area due to its lack of schools and healthy grocery options. “I know what it’s like to feel abandoned, I know what it’s like for people to walk away from you and act like you don’t even exist. I know what it’s like for people to not believe in you” Smith said.

Terrica Smith, the youngest Black female real estate developer in the state.

Madeline Cove became Smith’s passion project. “I realized very early on that we had to be able to change the hearts and minds of people because if people instantly think that the North side is the bad side, then nobody’s going to want to invest any money over there,” Smith said. She noted how so many commercial establishments have closed down in North Lafayette, leaving a shell of its former self in the midst of a food and healthcare desert.

Smith turned to her trusted investors from around the world to invest in Madeline Cove, but they were all hesitant. She had over 100 rejections when soliciting investments, but that only lit the fire of this determined young woman more. She kept a notebook of tally marks of all the rejections she experienced, along with the name of the very first investor who told her yes.

Smith had thought that the newly developed Opportunity Zone Act established under the Trump administration would attract investors who were looking for solid ways to defer tax obligations on capital gains, but it was not so. “The issue for investors was not so much them deferring their capital gains of 30 to 40%, it was really that they did not see the vision for Madeline Cove,” Smith said. The first “yes” from an investor is what kept Smith going. “Of course it wasn’t time to throw in the towel, it was time to turn up the fire and start making more things happen, Smith said.

After countless late hour meetings and persistence, Smith finally got the investments that she needed to make Madeline Cove a reality.  While she hopes the project appeals to those who want to live in the heart of Lafayette in decent and affordable housing,