Where It Started
Heavy Equipment Runs in the Family
Dan McReynolds's grandfather was a vice president and part owner of Procon Incorporated, an international contractor that built complete oil refineries and chemical plants. He headed Procon's field operations worldwide and was often assigned personally to its major projects, from the Philippines to France. His last refinery was the Union Oil refinery in Torrance, California. Site preparation and pad work were built into each of those projects, part of delivering the entire plant.
In the early 1960s, his grandfather also started Groves Equipment Rental, renting heavy equipment to crews retrofitting the refineries and chemical plants of the Houston Gulf Coast. Groves Equipment is still family-run today, now in its fifth generation with a sixth on the way. Baylor University's Institute for Family Business honored it with the Founders Award in its 2003 Texas Family Business of the Year competition, and Groves donated use of a Baylor-gold crane for construction of Baylor's football stadium.
Dan grew up around heavy equipment on Texas job sites and learned to run it himself, clearing his grandfather's ranch. That's where he fell in love with big equipment. He later ran crews for a site preparation and wet/dry utility contractor in Los Angeles, and in 2014 founded IconX Builders, a commercial general contractor in Waco. The dirt never left him.
The San Marcos Pad
The Job That Started M Terra
In 2018, IconX began The View on the Square, a 207,000 SF, 500-bed, six-story student housing project in San Marcos. The building pad was 45,000 SF, on a site that sat partially within the floodplain. It required a full 6-foot excavation, re-compaction of the subgrade, and a 5-foot engineered overbuild placed in certified lifts.
No tier-one site contractor would commit to the job on terms that protected the schedule. Dan saw the opening and took it. M Terra, LLC was formed in 2019 to self-perform the work. For a first project in a new company, it was larger than most site contractors attempt in a decade. The pad was delivered, and the building stands on it today.
What Came Next
The Sites Others Priced High or Passed On
Steep urban hillsides in central Austin, where elevation changes, tight property lines, and city review make every cut a sequencing problem. Each excavation is shored, staged, and certified before the next one starts.
Subterranean storm water retention, where city code requires on-site detention under a building or courtyard. Holes roughly 20 to 30 feet wide, 30 feet long, and 40 feet deep. Once the hole is too deep and tight for full-size equipment, we crane mini excavators to the bottom to finish the dig, then build site-specific concrete retaining walls and set the retention tanks in place to code.
Dense infill multifamily along Austin's urban corridors, with minimal laydown, deep utilities, and vertical trades waiting.
Large-acreage developments, with mass grading, road cuts, multiple pad builds, and utility extensions across open tracts.
M Terra, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of IconX Builders with its own crews, equipment, and leadership, focused entirely on site work.
Leadership
Who Runs M Terra
Dan M. McReynolds, J.D., Founder. Grew up around heavy equipment on Texas job sites and learned to operate it clearing his grandfather's ranch; former site and utility crew chief in Los Angeles; founder of IconX Builders. Baylor Law graduate and former Baylor Law adjunct professor.
Rudy Torres, Vice President. 18+ years managing commercial construction in Central Texas and surrounding states. Rudy has delivered 30+ hotels and nearly 75 other projects across Texas, California, Colorado, and Louisiana, with in-depth knowledge of every trade's scope from site work through finish.
