Miami's WD Capital Group Nears $1 Billion in Real Estate Financings Since 2022

MIAMI — Four years after opening its doors, a Miami boutique capital markets shop is within sight of a round number that used to belong to much larger platforms: nearly $1 billion in financings and equity placements.

WD Capital Group, founded in 2022, said it is nearing that milestone across debt advisory, equity placement and structured finance mandates. The firm is led by managing principals Emile Schachter and Eduardo Peláez and advises sponsors who need more than a single senior loan to get a project out of the ground.

The Deals Behind the Milestone

The firm’s cited track record spans South Florida condo construction, Central Florida hospitality and Design District mixed-use product. Major transactions include:

• $112 million in construction financing for a for-sale condominium in Broward County.
• $101 million in construction financing for Visions Orlando Resort & Spa.
• $85.5 million construction loan for MIRAI Design District in Miami, advised alongside Berkadia.
• $50 million in mezzanine financing for the East Tower at Oasis Hallandale, a 25-story luxury condominium in Hallandale Beach.
• An earlier $35 million equity placement for a closed-end Opportunity Zone vehicle.

Taken together, the slate shows a firm that is not tied to one product type. For-sale condo, resort, Design District and Opportunity Zone equity all require different lender appetites, different covenants and different timing — which is precisely the gap a boutique advisory tries to fill when banks pull leverage down.

Why Capital Stacks Got More Complicated

The backdrop is a lending market that has grown more conservative. Banks and debt funds have cut leverage. Developers who once closed with a senior construction loan and a thin equity check now lean on preferred equity, joint-venture capital, mezzanine debt and family office money to plug the hole.

Schachter described the shift bluntly in the firm’s announcement. “Capital is available, but the way projects are being capitalized has changed significantly,” he said. “Developers are having to solve for more pieces of the capital stack, and that is creating a greater need for structured solutions and multiple sources of capital.”

Peláez pointed to who is filling those gaps. “Family offices and other private capital sources have become increasingly important in filling gaps that senior lenders are no longer willing to cover,” he said. “That flexibility is allowing strong projects to move forward even in a more disciplined lending environment.”

How the Firm Underwrites Mandates

According to WD Capital Group, the shop evaluates budgets, contingencies, schedules, absorption, zoning and entitlements, and it engages sponsors early — before a capital stack is locked into a structure that will not clear today’s lenders. That early involvement is the product pitch: in a market where senior debt covers less of total cost, the advisory work is less about finding one check and more about sequencing several.

The $85.5 million MIRAI Design District loan alongside Berkadia and the $50 million Oasis Hallandale mezzanine illustrate the two ends of that spectrum. One is a large construction loan on a Miami design-and-retail corridor project; the other is junior capital that fills what a senior lender would not cover on a Hallandale Beach condo tower. The Broward for-sale condo financing and the Orlando resort loan extend the same logic across product types and geographies.

Why It Matters for Miami

South Florida’s development pipeline did not stop when bank leverage tightened. It got more expensive to assemble and more dependent on intermediaries who can source preferred equity, mezzanine and family office capital alongside traditional construction debt. A Miami-based boutique crossing toward $1 billion in financings since 2022 is evidence that local sponsors are still closing — and that the advisors stitching those stacks together are becoming as important as the lenders writing the senior notes.

For developers, the message in Schachter and Peláez’s comments is practical. Capital exists, but it arrives in more pieces, with more diligence on budgets, contingencies, absorption and entitlements. For brokers, contractors and land sellers watching whether vertical construction continues, deals like the MIRAI Design District loan and the Oasis Hallandale mezzanine are the proof points that complex stacks can still fund Miami and Broward towers.

The open question is whether family offices and private capital keep filling senior-lender gaps if rates, insurance costs or absorption soften. WD Capital’s milestone suggests that, for now, enough sponsors are finding answers to keep the firm’s ledger growing toward that $1 billion mark.