GREENWICH, CT — Halberd Capital founder Brett Lonergan, citing the incoming Mamdani administration, told limited partners Thursday that his fund would be “taking the difficult but necessary step” of relocating its operations to Greenwich, Connecticut, where the firm has been headquartered since 2011.
The four-paragraph letter, sent on stationery listing a Putnam Avenue address that is currently 38 miles from Manhattan and has been for the entirety of Lonergan’s career, framed the move as a “painful but principled” response to the city’s political direction. Lonergan, who has not commuted into New York since a 2019 dental appointment, called it “the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make from this exact desk.”
The Halberd “trading floor” referenced in the letter is a 2,400-square-foot suite above a Pure Barre on East Putnam, accessed by an elevator that opens directly into the firm’s reception area, where a single Nespresso machine sits next to a stack of Sweetgreen bags marked “Lonergan — no onion.” Two of the fund’s eight employees work fully remote from Charleston.
According to Halberd’s most recent Form ADV filing, the firm has maintained a New York “satellite presence” consisting of a WeWork hot desk on West 57th the firm last badged into in March 2018. A receptionist there confirmed the keycard still works but that no one has used it.
“This is a real and meaningful capital flight event,” said Devra Holst, principal at Beacon Strategy, a research desk that publishes a quarterly note tracking fund relocations. “It would be more meaningful if any of the funds had ever been in New York. Of the 31 firms threatening to leave this month, 24 are already in Fairfield County, four are in Palm Beach, and three are a guy named Adam working from his in-laws’ pool house in Westport.”
The letter to LPs included a 14-page appendix outlining the relocation timeline, logistics, and tax implications. A copy reviewed by mmnn.news shows the entire move plan consists of one bullet point reading “continue current operations,” followed by a footnote noting that the firm’s general counsel will update the website footer to remove the words “with offices in New York.”
Reached at his home in Riverside, an LP who asked not to be named because he was eating a tuna melt said he had received the letter, glanced at it on his phone, and forwarded it to his wife with the note “lol Brett.” He said he had no plans to redeem and was mostly concerned about whether the firm’s annual meeting, traditionally held at a Stamford steakhouse, would now be held at a different Stamford steakhouse.
Lonergan’s letter closed by promising LPs that Halberd would “weather this storm together,” and that the firm remained committed to “the values that built this country and this fund,” specifically a long position in regional banks and a short on a small-cap pet food company that has now risen 41% year-to-date.
The firm’s Manhattan exit is scheduled for completion by the end of Q1 2026, at which point Halberd will continue operating from the same suite above the Pure Barre, with the same eight employees, ordering the same lunch, from the same Sweetgreen, which is also in Greenwich.