An investment firm with a developer's DNA.
Mason Square Capital is a real estate private equity firm dedicated to ground-up development projects in South Florida.
One North. One Firm. One Team.
One direction, one way of working, and everyone in a transaction on the same side.
Why Mason Square
We look at every project the way a builder does: from the ground up.
A builder's eye
Our founder designed, built, financed and developed real estate before he invested in it. The person who underwrites an investment also negotiates it, oversees it and reports on it.
One market, known closely
Miami rewards being present. Zoning, permits, contractors and buyers are local matters, and we are here every day.
Relationships first
Most of what we invest in never reaches the market. Projects come to us early, through people we have worked with for years.
The experience behind every investment
30+
years in construction, finance and real estate development
$5B+
U.S. dollars in assets developed, financed or acquired
9.9M
square feet of building area across his projects
$500M
U.S. dollar portfolio built for Gazit-Globe in Latin America
Career experience of Dan Bernd, including roles held at prior employers. These are not figures of Mason Square Capital. As of October 2026.
“Real estate is as much about contracts as it is about bricks.”
Dan Bernd, Founder and CEO
Experience
Projects the founder has built
Aladdin Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas · A US$1.3 billion resort delivered in 24 months
The Magellan
Manhattan · A 34-story rental tower with 168 apartments
San Pelegrino Shopping Mall
Caxias do Sul, Brazil · 180,000 sq ft, LEED certified
The firm
A mason is a builder. That is where our name begins.
A mason sets one stone true on the next, and answers for the wall. Our founder learned real estate that way, on job sites, before he financed or invested in anything. We still look at every project the way a builder does: from the ground up.
Mason
The builder. Where we come from.
Square
The standard the work is held to.
Capital
The investors we answer to.
A Miami firm, small on purpose.
Mason Square Capital is a real estate private equity firm dedicated to ground-up development projects in South Florida. We sponsor and manage club investments, one project at a time, with developers we know well.
The principal who underwrites an investment also negotiates it, oversees it and reports on it. Nothing is handed down.
What we value
One North. One Firm. One Team.
Our five principles date from the firm's founding in 2012.
Excellence
Every detail, a little better.
Integrity
Professionalism, fairness, and the alignment of interests with stakeholders.
Teamwork
People with a common purpose achieve what individuals cannot.
Entrepreneurship
The vision to see what is possible and the strength to get past obstacles.
Accountability
We answer for our practices and for any deficiency in our work. We sign our work.
How we invest
Every investment we make is a club deal.
How we invest
For each project we form a single-purpose vehicle that invests in a joint venture with the developer. There is no blind pool. Investors decide project by project.
Who invests
Interests in each vehicle are offered privately, only to investors who meet the eligibility standards in that vehicle's documents, and only through those documents.
How we are paid
Each vehicle pays us the fees, and a share of its profits, set out in its documents.
- 01
Underwrite
We form our own view of the four sides before any capital is committed.
- 02
Structure
We negotiate the joint venture terms with the developer.
- 03
Form
We form a single-purpose vehicle that invests in the joint venture as capital partner and voting member.
- 04
Offer
Interests in the vehicle are offered privately, to eligible investors.
- 05
Manage
We exercise the vehicle's rights, monitor the project and report to investors until the investment is realized. The developer runs construction and sales day to day.
Focus at a glance
- Market
- South Florida
- Investments
- Ground-up residential and commercial development
- Form
- Common, preferred and structured equity in each project. We do not lend to projects.
- Format
- One club investment for each project. No blind pool.
- Role
- Sponsor and manager of each vehicle. Not the developer, lender or placement agent of any project.
- Founded
- 2012, in Miami
A club investment is concentrated in one asset and is not liquid.
It depends on the developer's performance and on Mason Square's principal. It does not remove risk, and it does not promise a better return than any other format. Development investments are exposed to cost, schedule, market and developer risk. Every investment can lose value, including all of the capital invested.
The founder
Trained to build. Organized to invest.
Dan Bernd, Founder and CEO
Dan Bernd has spent more than thirty years on every side of a real estate project: designing it, building it, financing it, developing it and investing in it.
He began in design, engineering and construction at Fluor Corporation, a Fortune 500 company ranked for several consecutive years as the largest engineering and construction company in the United States, with assignments across the country and abroad.
After an MBA at the Wharton School, he joined the project finance team of BNP Paribas, a European bank, in New York. He then served as a real estate development executive at Pitcairn Properties, part of a multigenerational family office in the Northeast.
He went on to launch and run the Latin American operations of Gazit-Globe, a global real estate company, before founding Mason Square Capital in 2012.
“Real estate capital with developer DNA.”
Education
B.S. in Civil Engineering, North Carolina State University. M.S. in Civil Engineering, Clemson University. MBA, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. General Management Program, Harvard Business School Executive Education. Postgraduate specialization in Real Estate Law, Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas, São Paulo.
The experience behind every investment we make.
30+
years in construction, finance and real estate development
$5B+
U.S. dollars in assets developed, financed or acquired
9.9M
square feet of building area across his projects
$500M
U.S. dollar portfolio built for Gazit-Globe in Latin America
Career experience of Dan Bernd, including roles held at prior employers. These are not figures of Mason Square Capital. As of October 2026.
Approach
We look at the whole project, the way a developer does.
Every investment has four sides, and each has to be true.
The location
Miami is a global alpha city. Where in it? We look for the needle in the haystack.
The real estate
Would this product be worth building at today's costs and prices? Will it stand the test of time?
The developer
Has this team delivered this kind of project, and can it carry this one?
The structure
If the plan slips, who is protected and who decides? Can it be financed and exited on schedule?
If one side is out of square, we decline. We do not average them.
“Reading a cycle takes more than instinct. It takes a rigorous look at every position from every discipline.”
Dan Bernd · Finance, strategy, marketing, law, economics and even sociology
Miami
One market, known closely.
Miami is a working business city for people from many countries. It is also a real estate market that rewards being present. Zoning, permits, contractors and buyers are local matters, and we are here every day.
Most of what decides a project is set early: the site, the approvals, the structure and the choice of builder. Those decisions are local, and they are hard to judge from a distance.
We invest in South Florida because it is the market we know closely.
Relationships
Most of what we invest in never reaches the market.
Projects come to us early, through people we have worked with for years: developers, lenders, architects and contractors in South Florida. We stay close to the ones whose work we rate most highly.
Those relationships were built over a career of more than thirty years in real estate, and through the alumni communities of the Wharton School and Harvard Business School.
We see hundreds of projects. We pursue very few.
There is no fund that needs feeding, so we can decline, and we do so quickly, with reasons. Not investing is an acceptable outcome.
For those who build and those who invest.
Those who build
A considered answer, quickly. Equity shaped to the project. A partner who reads a budget, a schedule and a construction contract, and does not try to do the developer's job.
Those who invest
You will know what you own, why it is structured as it is, and how it is performing, from the person who underwrote it.
The same person, from the first conversation to the last report.
Experience
Projects the founder has built
Projects of Dan Bernd's former employers, shown with his role. They are not Mason Square Capital transactions.
Aladdin Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas · Fluor Corporation, Contracts Manager
A US$1.3 billion resort: 4.7 million sq ft and 2,600 rooms, delivered in 24 months.
The Magellan
Manhattan · Pitcairn Properties, VP of Development
A 34-story rental tower: 168 apartments, fully leased within six months.
San Pelegrino Shopping Mall
Caxias do Sul, Brazil · Gazit-Globe, President and CEO, Brazil
180,000 sq ft and more than 120 stores, built in 30 months. LEED certified.
By employer
Fluor Corporation
Contracts Manager
- Aladdin Hotel & CasinoLas VegasResort construction
- General Motors plantGravataí, BrazilIndustrial construction
Pitcairn Properties
Vice President of Development
- The MagellanManhattanGround-up rental tower
- The EllingtonPhiladelphiaConversion to condominium residences
- The 505ManhattanSite entitled over a rail easement
- Bentonville PlazaBentonville, ArkansasClass A office building
Gazit-Globe
President and CEO, Brazil
- San Pelegrino Shopping MallCaxias do Sul, BrazilGround-up shopping center
- Morumbi Town CenterSão Paulo, BrazilRetail redevelopment
Selected experience. Not a complete list and not a record of investment performance. Status as of October 2026.
Contact
Start with a conversation.
We are glad to hear from developers with a project and from investors who want to know how we work.
We discuss specific investments only in private, with investors we know who are eligible to take part. Sending us a message does not create an advisory, client or other relationship, and we do not accept investments through this site. We use what you send only to reply to you, as described in our privacy policy.
Notices
Notices
No offer
This website is for information only. It is not an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security. Any offering will be made only to eligible investors through confidential offering documents.
No advice
Nothing here is investment, legal or tax advice, or a recommendation regarding any investment.
Forward-looking statements and past results
Statements about plans and expectations are not guarantees. Past results do not indicate future results, and every investment can lose value, including all of the capital invested.
Third-party projects and marks
Names, images and marks of developers, projects, companies and schools belong to their owners. Their use does not imply endorsement.
Mason Square Capital's only office is in Miami, Florida. This website is not directed at any person in any jurisdiction where its publication or availability would be unlawful.
Privacy
Privacy policy
This site asks for nothing and tracks nothing. This page sets out what little information reaches us and what we do with it.
Who we are
This website is operated by Mason Square Capital LLC (“Mason Square Capital”, “we”), 601 Brickell Key Drive, Suite 700, Miami, Florida 33131.
What this site collects
The site has no forms, accounts or sign-ups. It does not use cookies, analytics or advertising tags, and it does not track visitors across other sites, so it does not respond to “Do Not Track” signals.
Technical records
The company that hosts this site keeps standard server records of each visit: internet address, browser type, the pages requested, and the date and time. They are used to run and secure the site. The site’s typefaces are loaded from Google Fonts, so your browser sends your internet address to Google to fetch them.
What you send us
If you write to us or call, we receive your name, your contact details and whatever you choose to tell us. We use it only to reply to you and to keep a record of our correspondence. Please do not send confidential or financial information.
Who receives it
We do not sell personal information or share it for marketing. It is handled by the providers that host this site and carry our email, and it is disclosed to others only where the law requires.
How long we keep it
We keep correspondence for as long as it is needed for the purpose it was sent, or for as long as the law requires, and then delete it.
Your choices
You may ask what information we hold about you, and ask us to correct or delete it. Where the law of the place you live gives you further rights over your personal information, including in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Brazil and California, we will honor them.
Children
This site is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will post the new version on this page with a new effective date.
Contact
For any question about this policy or your information, write to db@m2cap.com, call +1 917 699 4983, or write to the address above.
Effective October 10, 2026.