The Top 1031 DST Sponsor Firms on Baker 1031's Preferred Sponsor List

When you sell an investment property and complete a 1031 exchange into a Delaware Statutory Trust (DST), you are not simply buying real estate — you are entrusting your capital, and the tax-deferred gains you have spent years building, to the firm that assembles, finances, manages, and eventually sells that real estate. That firm is the sponsor. In the DST world, the sponsor is the single most important variable in the entire transaction. The same apartment community or net-lease portfolio can be a rewarding, worry-free income investment or a source of years of frustration depending on who underwrote the debt, how conservatively the deal was structured, and whether the sponsor has the operational depth to steward the property through a full market cycle.

That is why Baker 1031 Investments maintains a Preferred Sponsor List — a curated shortlist of the DST sponsors we believe stand apart on track record, institutional quality, structural discipline, and alignment with investors. Out of the more than one hundred sponsors whose offerings appear across the marketplace, eleven currently carry preferred status: Bluerock, Bridgeview, Capital Square, Carter Exchange, Denholtz, ExchangeRight, Griffin Capital, Hamilton Point Investments, NexPoint, Olympus Property, and Peachtree Group.

This article profiles all eleven, organized by the asset classes they specialize in — because the right sponsor for you depends heavily on the kind of real estate you want your exchange to land in. A net-lease income investor, a growth-oriented multifamily investor, and an investor seeking a debt-free industrial position are all well served by this list, but by very different firms on it. Before the profiles, it is worth understanding what earns a sponsor a place here in the first place.

What Makes a DST Sponsor "Preferred"

Preferred status is not a marketing badge and it is not a ranking of one firm over another. It is a judgment about durability and investor alignment, and it rests on a consistent set of criteria.

Track record and full-cycle history come first. Anyone can acquire a building in a strong market; the real test is how a sponsor's offerings perform when they are sold — the "full cycle" from acquisition to disposition. A sponsor that has taken numerous programs full-cycle, and can document the returns investors actually realized, has proven something that a newer sponsor simply cannot.

Scale and staying power matter because a DST is a multi-year commitment. Sponsors with substantial assets under management, deep balance sheets, and institutional lending relationships are better positioned to weather a downturn, negotiate favorable financing, and honor their long-term obligations to a trust that may hold a property for seven to ten years.

Vertical integration — owning the acquisition, financing, asset-management, and property-management functions in-house rather than outsourcing them — tends to produce better operational outcomes and cleaner alignment. A sponsor that also operates the real estate has its reputation on the line every month.

Structural discipline and transparency round out the list: conservative, well-laddered debt (or genuinely debt-free offerings), realistic distribution projections, clear reporting, sponsor co-investment alongside DST holders, and thoughtfully designed exits — including 721 UPREIT options that can roll a DST interest into a larger REIT for continued deferral and diversification.

The eleven firms below each satisfy these criteria in their own way. Here they are at a glance, followed by full profiles grouped by specialty.

• ExchangeRight — 2012 · Pasadena, CA · ~$7.5B AUM · Net-lease essential retail & healthcare
• Bluerock — 2005 · New York, NY · ~$19B enterprise · Multifamily & residential
• Capital Square — 2012 · Richmond, VA · $9B+ transaction volume · Class A multifamily & diversified
• Olympus Property — 1992 · Fort Worth, TX · ~$9.6B portfolio · Class A multifamily
• Hamilton Point Investments — 2009 · Old Lyme, CT · ~$4B acquired · Multifamily / apartments
• Griffin Capital — 1995 · El Segundo, CA · ~$3.5B program · Class A multifamily & build-to-rent
• Carter Exchange — 2019 · Tampa, FL · ~$2B DST AUM · Multifamily & value-add
• Bridgeview — 2011 · Dallas, TX · ~$440M realized · Texas multifamily development
• Denholtz — 1953 · Red Bank, NJ · $2B+ assets · Industrial & diversified commercial
• Peachtree Group — 2007 · Atlanta, GA · $15.8B real estate value · Hospitality & credit
• NexPoint — 2012 · Dallas, TX · ~$33B platform · Diversified (multifamily, lodging)

Scale is measured differently by different firms — current assets under management, cumulative transaction volume, enterprise-wide real estate value, or total platform assets. Figures are drawn from Baker 1031's sponsor directory and each sponsor's own disclosures and should be read as an indicator of size, not a like-for-like comparison. Bluerock's 1031 exchange platform, Bluerock Value Exchange, marked its 20th anniversary in 2025.

Net-Lease & Necessity-Based Income

For 1031 investors whose priority is durable, predictable monthly income with minimal operational drama, net-lease real estate — properties leased long-term to creditworthy tenants who pay taxes, insurance, and maintenance — is the classic destination. One firm on the Preferred List is defined by it.

ExchangeRight

ExchangeRight has become one of the most recognizable names in the DST market by doing one thing exceptionally well: assembling portfolios of necessity-based net-lease retail and healthcare properties leased to investment-grade and creditworthy tenants such as Dollar General, Walgreens, dollar stores, and pharmacies. Founded in 2012 in Pasadena, California, and shaped explicitly by the lessons of the Great Recession, the firm built its thesis around tenants that keep paying rent in good times and bad. Its platform has grown to roughly $7.5 billion in assets under management, spanning more than 1,400 properties across 47 states.

What sets ExchangeRight apart structurally is choice. It sponsors both a leveraged program (the ExchangeRight Net-Leased Portfolio DST) and a genuinely debt-free, all-cash DST, which eliminates lender and refinancing risk entirely — a meaningful comfort for conservative exchangers. Its offerings are designed with a built-in 721 UPREIT exit into the firm's Essential Income REIT, giving investors a path to continued deferral and diversification at disposition. The firm reports that 100% of its offerings have met or exceeded their original cash-flow projections, that it has taken more than thirty offerings full-cycle at an average annual return in the mid-8% range, and that it has distributed well over $4 billion to investors since inception.

The considerations are inherent to the strategy: net-lease portfolios carry tenant concentration risk — Walgreens' store-closure program is an industry-wide example — and net-lease valuations are sensitive to interest rates. For investors who want steady income backed by essential-business tenants, ExchangeRight is a benchmark sponsor.

Class A & Institutional Multifamily

Apartments are the workhorse asset class of the DST market, and the Preferred List is deep here. These five firms operate large, institutional multifamily platforms, each with a distinct edge.

Bluerock

Bluerock is one of the longest-tenured sponsors of securitized 1031 programs in the country. Its exchange platform, Bluerock Value Exchange (BVEX), celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2025, and the broader Bluerock enterprise — led by founder and CEO Ramin Kamfar and headquartered in New York — reports more than $19 billion of acquired and managed assets. For a 1031 investor, the most relevant figure is program-specific: BVEX's exchange programs hold roughly $2.8 billion, focused on residential and commercial real estate in high-growth Sunbelt markets.

Over two decades, Bluerock has sponsored dozens of individual 1031 programs and completed nineteen full-cycle DST programs, reporting more than $675 million returned to investors at a net annualized return near 14%. It offers both leveraged and non-leveraged (all-cash) structures with comparatively accessible minimums. Its long history through multiple real estate cycles — including the 2008–2009 downturn — is precisely the kind of durability that preferred status is meant to capture.

Capital Square

Founded in 2012 by industry veteran Louis Rogers and based in Richmond, Virginia, Capital Square has built one of the most prolific full-cycle track records in the entire DST industry. The firm has completed more than $9 billion in transaction volume since inception across 175-plus real estate assets, concentrating on Class A multifamily in strong Sunbelt submarkets, with additional exposure to manufactured housing, senior and active-adult communities, and Opportunity Zone development.

Capital Square's differentiator is its disposition record. The firm has taken dozens of DST offerings full-cycle since 2018 — including a notably active recent stretch — and reports an audited average total return across its full-cycle offerings well above 150% (a cumulative, not annualized, figure). Like ExchangeRight, it offers a built-in 721 UPREIT exit into its own affiliated REITs, and it set a firm record for UPREIT transactions in its most recent year. Investors should note that most offerings use leverage, carrying the usual interest-rate and refinancing exposure, and that some deals involve development or lease-up risk. For exchangers who value a sponsor with a deep, documented history of actually completing the round trip, Capital Square is hard to beat.

Olympus Property

Olympus Property brings something many DST sponsors cannot: three decades as a hands-on multifamily operator. Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the firm is vertically integrated, managing its Class A apartment communities in-house rather than outsourcing operations. Its portfolio has grown to roughly $9.6 billion in value across 145-plus properties and more than 40,000 units in 18 states, and the firm reports dozens of full-cycle events with strong deal-level performance.

Olympus recently extended its institutional platform into the retail-wealth and DST channel, giving 1031 investors access to real estate it previously offered mainly to institutions and its own principals. That is a genuine advantage — you are investing alongside a proven operator — but it also comes with a caveat worth understanding: the firm's headline return statistics (an average deal-level IRR above 30% and an equity multiple around 3x) reflect gross, deal-level, institutional performance, not the net, leveraged, fixed-hold returns a passive DST investor should expect. Read those numbers as evidence of operational skill rather than as a forecast of your own result.

Hamilton Point Investments

If you value transparency in reported outcomes, Hamilton Point Investments deserves close attention. Founded in 2009 by co-managing principals David Kelsey and Matthew Sharp and based in Old Lyme, Connecticut, the firm focuses squarely on cash-flowing apartment communities and has acquired more than $4 billion of real estate across 180-plus properties and 35,000-plus units since inception.

Hamilton Point stands out for publishing genuinely investor-net full-cycle results rather than gross deal-level figures. Its completed programs have consistently delivered net IRRs above 14% on disciplined holds of roughly four years — one representative DST returned a 1.62x equity multiple at a net IRR near 14% — and the firm has returned tens of millions of dollars of realized equity to investors. That combination of a single-sector focus, conservative underwriting philosophy, affiliated in-house property management, and clear net-to-investor reporting makes Hamilton Point a favorite among advisors who scrutinize the fine print. As always, historical net IRRs are not a guarantee of future results, and investors should confirm which affiliated manager operates a given trust.

Griffin Capital

Griffin Capital, founded in 1995 by Kevin Shields and based in El Segundo, California, is one of the most established alternative-investment sponsors in the country, with roughly thirty years of experience acquiring, developing, and operating real estate. Today its active DST program centers on Class A multifamily, sponsored through its dedicated exchange affiliate, and the firm has brought more than two dozen tax-advantaged private placements to market over the life of the program.

Griffin's recent strategic move is notable: in 2025 it launched a dedicated build-to-rent (BTR) platform, expanding its residential capabilities into purpose-built rental communities — a fast-growing niche that pairs single-family living with professional management. The firm also sponsors Qualified Opportunity Zone funds, giving investors adjacent tax-advantaged strategies under one roof. Griffin's long corporate history includes several former non-traded REIT vehicles that have since been spun off, so investors should focus on the current active program rather than lifetime cumulative figures — but the depth of the institutional platform behind these DSTs is a clear strength.

Value-Add & Development Multifamily

The next two sponsors also live in multifamily, but with a growth-oriented, value-creation tilt rather than a stabilized-income posture. They can offer higher return potential in exchange for a different, more active risk profile.

Carter Exchange

Carter Exchange, the DST arm of the Carter Funds family, launched in 2019 and operates from Tampa, Florida. It focuses primarily on multifamily, with selective industrial and specialty exposure, and has grown its DST platform to roughly $2 billion in assets across two-dozen-plus offerings, most of them active apartment programs comprising thousands of units. The firm emphasizes recurring monthly income and portfolio diversification for exchangers.

Carter's early full-cycle results have been eye-catching: its first exits, completed in 2023, are reported at an average annual return above 25% and an average total return near 61%. Those are strong numbers, but they come from a small sample — the firm is a younger, mid-sized sponsor with only a handful of completed round trips and meaningful concentration in Sunbelt multifamily during a period of elevated apartment supply. Carter earns its preferred status on the quality of its offerings and its momentum; investors should size positions with its shorter track record in mind.

Bridgeview

Bridgeview — operating as Bridgeview Real Estate and BV Capital out of Dallas, Texas — is the smallest and newest-to-DSTs firm on the list, and it is included for a specific reason: a genuinely exceptional realized development record. Founded in 2011 and veteran-owned, the firm specializes in ground-up Class A multifamily development across Texas, from Dallas–Fort Worth to Houston, Austin, and the Hill Country. Across seventeen fully realized deals totaling roughly $440 million in capitalization, BV Capital reports an average investor IRR near 34%, an average equity multiple close to 2.8x, and an average hold around three years.

Those are development-and-value-add returns, and they carry a correspondingly different risk profile than a stabilized net-lease or income DST: construction risk, lease-up risk, and market-timing risk are all in play. Bridgeview's principals invest personally in every deal and are hands-on operators, which aligns them tightly with investors, but its DST program is still nascent. This is a sponsor for exchangers who understand development risk and want Texas-focused growth exposure within their 1031 — not for those seeking day-one stabilized income.

Industrial & Diversified Commercial

Industrial real estate — warehouses, distribution, and flex space — has been one of the strongest-performing sectors of the past decade, yet it remains underrepresented among DST offerings. One preferred sponsor brings deep industrial expertise and rare sector diversification to the list.

Denholtz

Denholtz Properties is the elder statesman of the Preferred List. Founded in 1953 and headquartered in Red Bank, New Jersey, with a strong Florida and southeastern footprint, the firm has more than seventy years of vertically integrated real estate experience and over $2 billion in assets across a 7-million-square-foot portfolio. Its specialty is multi-tenant, shallow-bay flex industrial in high-growth southeastern markets — a segment prized for its tenant diversification and resilient demand — alongside residential, retail, office, and mixed-use holdings.

Denholtz entered the DST market for the first time in December 2025, launching the Denholtz Wealth Exchange with an inaugural industrial DST in the Tampa area that was fully reserved within weeks. That makes it the rarest kind of sponsor: a decades-old, institutionally seasoned operator offering an asset class most DST sponsors don't. The firm co-invests alongside DST holders, targets monthly distributions, and provides white-glove reporting to advisors and investors. The obvious consideration is that its DST program is brand new — investors are underwriting Denholtz's long institutional history rather than a proven DST full-cycle record — and multi-tenant flex industrial carries ongoing re-leasing risk. For 1031 investors seeking industrial exposure and genuine sector diversification, Denholtz fills a gap almost no one else on the list can.

Hospitality & Multi-Sector Alternatives

Finally, two firms broaden the Preferred List well beyond apartments and retail — into hotels, lodging, credit, and large diversified platforms — for investors who want their exchange to reach differentiated sources of return.

Peachtree Group

Peachtree Group, based in Atlanta, traces its roots to 2007 and the founding of Peachtree Hotel Group by Greg Friedman and Mitul Patel; it rebranded and expanded to Peachtree Group in 2022–2023. The firm is a vertically integrated hospitality powerhouse — owner, operator, developer, and lender — with $15.8 billion in real estate asset value and a substantial commercial real estate credit business, including C-PACE financing. Its DST platform, launched in 2022, offers 1031 investors something almost unique on this list: hotel real estate structured as debt-free DSTs, eliminating refinancing risk on an otherwise operationally intensive asset.

Peachtree has quickly become a top-15 DST sponsor by equity raised, and it is expanding its DST offerings beyond hospitality into multifamily and industrial. The trade-offs are inherent to the asset class: hotels are cyclical and management-intensive, with no long-term leases to smooth income, and Peachtree's DST program — while backed by an enormous, deeply capitalized firm — is still young, without a long DST-specific full-cycle history. For investors who want genuine diversification away from apartments and net-lease retail, and who understand hospitality's risk-reward profile, Peachtree offers exposure most sponsors can't.

NexPoint

NexPoint, founded in 2012 by James Dondero and headquartered in Dallas, anchors the list with institutional scale. The broader NexPoint platform manages roughly $33 billion in assets across real estate, credit, and other strategies, and its DST platform has completed more than $3 billion in acquisitions over nearly a decade, sponsoring more than thirty DST offerings to date. Historically centered on Class A multifamily, NexPoint has recently diversified into hospitality and lodging DSTs, giving exchangers access to multiple property types under one well-resourced sponsor.

The strengths are the size and breadth of the platform and a decade-long DST tenure. The considerations are worth weighing carefully: despite more than thirty offerings, NexPoint has taken only a small number fully full-cycle, so its realized DST track record is thinner than its offering count suggests, and its newer lodging DSTs carry higher operational and cyclical volatility than stabilized multifamily. As with any sponsor connected to a large investment complex, thorough due diligence on the specific offering and its structure is warranted. For investors who prioritize platform scale and multi-sector optionality, NexPoint is a substantial choice.

How to Use the Preferred Sponsor List

The eleven firms above are not interchangeable, and the list is deliberately built to give 1031 investors real choice. An investor exchanging out of a management-heavy rental and craving passive, essential-retail income will gravitate toward ExchangeRight; one who wants a proven multifamily operator will look at Olympus, Hamilton Point, Capital Square, Bluerock, or Griffin; an investor seeking industrial or hospitality diversification has Denholtz and Peachtree; and those comfortable with development risk in pursuit of higher returns can consider Carter Exchange or Bridgeview.

A few principles apply no matter which sponsor you choose. First, match the sponsor to your objective — income, growth, diversification, or a specific asset class — rather than chasing the highest headline return. Second, read return figures carefully: gross deal-level IRRs (common in sponsor marketing) are not the same as net-to-investor returns, and cumulative total returns are not annualized returns. Third, weigh track record against tenure: several firms here are seasoned operators newly entering the DST channel, which means their impressive statistics reflect institutional history rather than proven DST outcomes — a reasonable bet, but a different one than backing a sponsor with dozens of completed DST round trips. Finally, review the specific offering, not just the sponsor: leverage levels, load, projected distributions, hold period, and exit strategy vary deal to deal even within the same firm.

Preferred status is a starting point for your due diligence, not a substitute for it. Baker 1031 Investments maintains this list to narrow the field to sponsors we believe merit serious consideration — and to help you compare them on the criteria that actually determine how a DST performs over its life.

Important Disclosures

This article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, nor an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. DST interests are speculative securities involving substantial risk, including the potential loss of principal, illiquidity, reliance on the sponsor, use of leverage, and the absence of a secondary market; they are generally available only to accredited investors and are offered solely through a Private Placement Memorandum (PPM), which should be read in full before investing.

Inclusion on Baker 1031 Investments' Preferred Sponsor List reflects Baker 1031's assessment of a sponsor's track record and institutional quality; it is not a guarantee of any sponsor's future performance and is not a recommendation of any specific offering. The firms are presented grouped by specialty, not ranked, and inclusion does not imply endorsement of one sponsor over another. AUM, track-record, and return figures are drawn from Baker 1031's sponsor directory and each sponsor's own reported disclosures as of mid-2026; different sponsors measure assets and returns differently, figures may be stated as gross or net, and past performance does not guarantee future results. IRC Section 1031 has specific requirements and deadlines; consult your own tax advisor and attorney regarding your particular situation before completing an exchange.