1789 Capital Closes $1.2B Fund for Sun Belt Development

1789 Capital, the Palm Beach investment firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner, closed its debut real estate development fund at $1.2 billion on August 13, targeting ground-up development across five Sun Belt states. Easton Street Capital, a Florida-based development and operating firm, is the fund’s exclusive operating partner.

Why it matters

This is new institutional equity aimed squarely at the kind of ground-up projects that have struggled to find capital in the current rate environment. The fund is targeting Florida alongside Texas, Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas, and its stated scope covers housing, manufacturing and data centers rather than a single asset class. For developers in South Florida who have a shovel-ready site and no equity partner, a fund built specifically to write development checks in this region, paired with an operating partner that says it has closed more than $700 million in South Florida transactions over the past five years, is a live channel worth testing regardless of who is behind the capital.

The numbers

The fund closed with $1.2 billion in committed capital. 1789 Capital says the fund and its co-investment structure are aimed at more than $8 billion in projected total capitalization once leverage and project-level partners are layered in. Easton Street, led by co-founder and managing partner Cody Crowell, brings 30 years of operating experience to the partnership. A related SEC filing for the fund’s blocker feeder vehicle shows its first sale of securities on March 19 and $65 million sold to one investor as of the March 31 filing date, a fraction of the eventual $1.2 billion close and a sign the raise built over several months rather than closing all at once.

What’s next

1789 Capital, founded by Omeed Malik, says workforce and multifamily housing will be one of the strategy’s largest allocations, alongside community development and AI-linked digital infrastructure. Trump Jr. joined the firm in 2024 and sits on its investment committee; the firm’s assets under management have grown from the hundreds of millions to more than $3 billion since. Watch for the fund’s first disclosed site selections, particularly whether any land in Florida, where Easton Street already has an operating track record and where developers have the most reason to test whether this capital actually deploys.