Sponsored by WD Capital Group.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Milestone underscores rising demand for structured capital as developers turn to preferred equity, mezzanine debt, and family office capital to offset reduced senior leverage
MIAMI (Nov. 4, 2026) — WD Capital Group has surpassed $850 million in financings and equity placements since the firm’s founding, including approximately $290 million arranged so far in 2026. The milestone reflects continued demand for sophisticated capital solutions as lenders maintain disciplined underwriting and reduced leverage across commercial real estate.
Co-founded by Emile Schachter, Eduardo Pelaez, and Alvaro Cardenas, WD Capital advises developers, owners, and investors across the full capital stack, pairing capital markets execution with development and construction expertise. The firm underwrites projects as a builder would, testing budgets, schedules, and absorption assumptions before capital providers do, and maintains the zoning, entitlement, and third-party relationships that determine whether a capital structure withstands diligence.
Assignments arranged in 2026 include an $85.5 million construction loan for MIRAI Design District in Miami’s Design District; a $101 million construction financing for a substantially pre-sold master-planned resort community in Central Florida; $50 million in mezzanine financing for a South Florida condominium development; a $30 million joint venture equity placement for an Opportunity Zone development; and a $24 million joint venture equity raise for a condominium development. In 2025, the firm arranged a $35 million equity placement for a closed-end Opportunity Zone vehicle and a $112 million construction financing for a for-sale condominium development in Broward County.
“This number comes down to a lot of hard work. Late nights, tough negotiations, and capital partners who have trusted us and stuck with our clients deal after deal,” said Emile Schachter, co-founder of WD Capital Group. “We don’t send a lender or investor anything we wouldn’t underwrite ourselves. Our team’s background is from Wall Street, private equity and private credit firms, and at family offices, so we’ve sat on the other side of the table. We stress-test every assumption and run the numbers again and again until the deal holds up. We want to know where the last dollar sits, how the lender sees the risk, and what’s actually happening in the market and the neighborhood.”
The composition of the capital stack continues to evolve. With banks and debt funds maintaining conservative underwriting and reducing proceeds, the gap between what senior lenders will provide and what projects require is increasingly filled by preferred equity, joint venture capital, mezzanine debt, and family office capital, most often in the middle of the capital stack rather than at the senior level. WD Capital’s practice is anchored in long-standing relationships with national and international family offices, an increasingly important source of capital as institutional lenders have reduced allocations.
“The family offices and strategic partners we work with don’t disappear when the market gets choppy. They invest through cycles,” said Eduardo Pelaez, co-founder of WD Capital Group. “A lot of those relationships go back years. We’ve gotten to know how they think and what they’re looking for, so when the right deal comes along, we know who it fits. It makes a big difference for a sponsor to have a partner who gets the business plan and sticks with them from the first dollar to the finish line.”
“Right now we have more than $300 million in deals in the works, and we’re growing beyond South Florida,” Schachter added. “The market has changed a lot with rates moving around the way they have, and we’ve changed with it. We’ve found new sources of capital and new ways to get deals done. We’re grateful for the sponsors and partners who got us here, and we’re excited about what’s next.”
“Every deal we work on starts with the sponsor’s long-term goals,” said Alvaro Cardenas, co-founder of WD Capital Group. “It’s rewarding to see the trust our clients and capital partners have placed in us, and we’re excited to keep building on it.”
WD Capital Group advises developers, owners, and investors on debt advisory, structured finance, and equity placement assignments throughout South Florida and select U.S. and international markets.
About WD Capital Group
Founded in Miami, WD Capital Group is a boutique real estate capital markets advisory firm specializing in debt advisory, equity placement, and structured finance solutions. The firm has advised on more than $850 million in financings and equity placements, partnering with developers, family offices, investors, and institutional lenders to structure and execute complex capitalizations across multifamily, condominium, hospitality, mixed-use, industrial, and land development projects. Combining the rigor of institutional finance with deep market knowledge and long-standing industry relationships, WD Capital delivers strategic capital solutions focused on execution certainty, alignment, and long-term value creation.
Portrait by Diego S. Cadavid. Logo courtesy of WD Capital Group.
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