Dan Wharton
Associate
Overview
Daniel Wharton is a real estate finance attorney in Holland & Knight's Atlanta office. Mr. Wharton focuses his practice on real estate finance, representing lenders and borrowers in the financing of commercial real estate assets, including industrial, multifamily, office, retail and hospitality.
Mr. Wharton also maintains an active real estate transactional practice, handling the acquisition, disposition, development and leasing of commercial real estate. His work spans commercial lending, community banking and real estate financial technology (FinTech), and he brings a combination of transactional and in-house experience to his practice.
In addition, Mr. Wharton volunteers significant time with Fishing the Good Fight, a nonprofit that uses fly fishing as a therapeutic outlet to support men's mental health, pairing outdoor experiences with access to licensed counselors and a supportive community.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Wharton was an associate at a regional real estate law firm in Denver, where his practice covered both landlord- and tenant-side commercial real estate matters, including the acquisition, disposition, development and leasing of commercial real estate assets.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Wharton served as general counsel of a technology-enabled real estate services company and the largest commercial appraisal management company in the country, serving more than 700 community and regional banks and credit unions nationwide. In that role, he led a partnership with a top U.S. FinTech company that facilitated approximately $1 billion in closed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans across 150 community banks. In addition, Mr. Wharton structured a sale-leaseback partnership with a New York-based private equity fund that produced more than $500 million in real estate acquisitions from community banks over an 18-month period. Mr. Wharton also managed the company's outside counsel relationships and advised on a broad range of corporate matters, including corporate governance, risk assessment, intellectual property and private equity funding events.
Mr. Wharton began his legal career at an Atlanta-based real estate law firm, where he represented institutional investors, developers, lenders and real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the acquisition, disposition, development, financing and leasing of commercial real estate across property types – including office, hotel, industrial and multifamily – on transactions ranging from $10 million to $1 billion.
Representative Experience
- Serve as primary associate to the sponsor of a $40.5 million joint venture transaction, drafting and negotiating the joint venture agreement, property management agreement and related ancillary documents
- Represent institutional clients in the acquisition and disposition of a broad range of commercial real estate asset classes, including mobile home park portfolios, multifamily properties, hotel properties, office buildings, a regional shopping mall and condominium developments
- Represent landlords in commercial office leasing transactions, serving as primary drafter and negotiator of leases and amendments across a portfolio of more than 20 transactions ranging from single-tenant suites to full-floor tenancies
- Represented MountainSeed Appraisal Management, the nation's largest commercial real estate appraisal management company, as well as MountainSeed Real Estate Services, in the development of its bank branch sale-leaseback program, a structured real estate capital markets initiative enabling financial institutions to monetize owned branch locations through sale-leaseback transactions involving long-term, triple net leases; drafted and negotiated letters of intent, purchase and sale agreements, and lease agreements across dozens of transactions in connection with approximately $500 million in property acquisitions
- Represented institutional investors, developers, lenders and real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the acquisition, disposition, development, financing and leasing of commercial real estate assets across a broad range of property types, including office, hotel, industrial and multifamily properties; drafted, reviewed and negotiated purchase and sale agreements, loan documents, commercial leases and ancillary transaction documents across deals ranging from $10 million to $1 billion
Credentials
- The University of Alabama School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude
- Auburn University, B.S./B.A., Finance, magna cum laude
- Georgia