Daniel L. Mita

Partner

  • Daniel L. Mita
  • Phone: +1 215 979 7335

    Import to Address Book

  • Duane Morris LLP
    30 South 17th Street
    Philadelphia, PA 19103-4196
    USA

Daniel L. Mita is a a real estate transactional attorney whose practice focuses on complex transactions involving interests in real estate. He represents developers, owners, operators, investors, lenders, public authorities, and public and private companies in acquisitions, dispositions, leasing development, financing and refinancing across asset classes.

Commercial leasing is a core component of Mr. Mita’s practice. He represents landlords and tenants in retail, office, industrial, and mixed-use leases, subleases, and ground leases, including flagship retail stores with substantial tenant improvement work, multi-site leasing programs for operators expanding into regional markets, lease-to-purchase structures, and long-term ground leases for hotel and resort development.

Mr. Mita also represents public and private out-of-home advertising companies and property owners nationally in the acquisition, leasing, development, and management of billboards, digital displays, and related structures. This work includes portfolio acquisitions, lease, easement, and management agreement structures, and public-private partnership programs for digital display development.

His hospitality practice encompasses the acquisition, financing, development, and ground leasing of hotels, resorts, and mixed-use projects, ranging from boutique hotels to island resort developments on behalf of the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands. He also advises owners and developers in the acquisition, disposition, development, financing, and refinancing of sites and campuses for data center use. 

In addition, Mr. Mita represents public authorities including the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, in public-private partnership and transit-oriented development transactions. Before joining Duane Morris, he was a senior project manager at a privately owned real estate development company where he worked on mixed-use developments, loan and equity restructurings, land use and entitlements, and investor and lender relationships.

Mr. Mita is a graduate of Georgetown University (B.A., 2008) and Drexel University, Thomas R. Kline School of Law (J.D., 2016).

Areas of Practice

  • Commercial Leasing
  • Out-of-Home Advertising
  • Hospitality
  • Data Centers
  • Commercial, Residential and Mixed-Use Real Estate Development
  • Real Estate Financing
  • Public-Private Partnerships and Transit-Oriented Development

Representative Matters

    Commercial Leasing

  • Represented SKIN1004, an affiliate of South Korean conglomerate Craver Corporation, in the negotiation of the lease for its flagship U.S. retail store at 470 Broadway in SoHo, New York, including extensive tenant work to create a two-story atrium, backed by a parent guaranty.

  • Represented an affiliate of a global sports merchandise company in negotiating a sublease of approximately 25,000 square feet for a commercial venture in the Portland, Oregon area.

  • Represented the owner and landlord in a $5.5 million lease-to-purchase transaction with seller financing for an industrial building in Cecil County, Maryland, to be used as an indoor cannabis growing facility, including subdivision and annexation into the Town of Elkton.

  • Represented International Raw Materials Ltd., a global distributor of crop nutrients and industrial commodities, in the negotiation of a ten-year, multi-million-dollar office lease of approximately 20,000 square feet at 100 Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

  • Represented private business in the negotiation and documentation of a 34,000 square foot industrial lease on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, PA.

  • Represented private institutional client in the negotiation and documentation of multiple retail leases in Philadelphia, PA and securing local and state tax abatements for a mixed-use development project.

  • Represented the Wilma Theater in licensing a newly renovated mixed purpose flex-use lobby space on Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts to Good Karma Café, for café and concessionaire use.

    • Out-of-Home Advertising

  • Represented OUTFRONT Media LLC, an affiliate of OUTFRONT Media Inc. (NYSE: OUT), in adding nine marquee billboards at Two Times Square and 1600 Broadway to its management portfolio, in partnership with Providence Equity Partners, which acquired a multi-decade lease for the billboards and the existing digital signage from Universal Branding Group. The displays generate more than one million daily ad impressions.

  • Represented a joint venture of three outdoor advertising companies in responding to an Orange County, California request for proposals for a public-private partnership program to develop and operate digital billboards on county land, including comments on the program’s form of lease.

    • Hospitality

  • Represented the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, through its Department of Property and Procurement, in the amendment of a ground lease to reinstate and reimagine a luxury hotel and marina resort on Water Island, increasing the minimum required investment to $440 million for a development anchored by a five-star hotel, with infrastructure, workforce and moderate-income housing, and community amenities; the amendment was approved by the Legislature of the Virgin Islands.

  • Represented the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, through its Department of Property and Procurement, as lessor in a multi-decade ground lease of Protestant Cay, St. Croix, for the revitalization, expansion, and development of a resort representing at least $35 million in private investment.

  • Represented the owner of a hotel site in Coronado, California, in the negotiation and amendment of a triple-net ground lease for a boutique hotel with an anchor restaurant.

  • Represented ICONA Opportunity Partners 1, LLC and ICONA, LLC in an $85 million financing from WSFS Bank to refinance existing debt for the ICONA hotel portfolio in southern New Jersey, including ICONA Avalon, ICONA Cape May, and ICONA Diamond Beach.

  • Represented a Mexico City-based hotel platform in its acquisition of the 516-room Grand Hyatt Denver and related multi-million-dollar financing from Banco de Sabadell.

  • Represented real estate private equity firm Blue Flag Capital in its acquisition and financing of the Kelley House, a historic 57-room boutique hotel in Edgartown, Massachusetts.

  • Represented Republic Bank in its $8.9 million construction loan for the conversion of the historic Security Trust and Safe Deposit building in Wilmington, Delaware, into a boutique hotel, involving an opportunity fund investment and state and federal historic tax credits.

    • Development, Finance, Infrastructure, and Public-Private Partnerships

  • Represented affiliates of the Buccini/Pollin Group as borrower’s counsel in the $85 million refinancing of 500 Delaware Avenue, an approximately 353,000 square foot Class A office tower in Wilmington, Delaware.

  • Represented affiliates of the Buccini/Pollin Group as borrower’s counsel in the $47 million refinancing of 101 DuPont Place, a luxury multifamily asset in the historic DuPont Building in Wilmington, Delaware, involving federal historic tax credits.

  • Represented Holy Ghost I, LP in $56 million in financing, including debt, private equity, federal historic tax credit equity, and federal New Markets Tax Credit equity, for the revitalization of the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia, a Live Nation concert venue; the deal was named Best Real Estate Deal of 2018 by the Philadelphia Business Journal.

  • Represented Lovett Commercial in its New Markets Tax Credit financing of the $150 million historic renovation of the former Houston Post Office Building into a mixed-use development with a Live Nation music venue, retail and makers’ spaces, and a rooftop urban farm.

  • Represented Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation in the land, financing, private equity, EB-5, and federal New Markets Tax Credit closing for the $70 million Eastern Tower project in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

  • Represented Community Loan Fund of New Jersey, Inc. in the deployment of $10.5 million of federal New Markets Tax Credits for a 27,000 square foot food industry commercialization center in Bridgeton, New Jersey.

  • Represented Community Loan Fund of New Jersey, Inc. in the deployment of $8 million of federal New Markets Tax Credits for an $80 million mixed-use project in downtown Newark, New Jersey.

  • Represented Community Asset Capital Preservation in debt and equity financing, including an opportunity fund investment and construction financing, for the conversion of the historic St. Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey, into apartments and commercial space.

  • Represented Sterling National Bank in its $7.9 million construction loan for an affordable housing development in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a capital stack including 9% federal low-income housing tax credit equity.

  • Represented Executive Education Academy Charter School Foundation in $41 million in tax-exempt and taxable revenue bonds to finance the $32.5 million acquisition and improvement of an approximately 473,000 square foot property on approximately 33 acres in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

  • Represented Service Electric Cable T.V. of New Jersey, Inc. in its approximately $150 million sale to Altice USA.

  • Represented a private real estate developer in the restructuring of a portfolio of residential and mixed-use projects, including $159 million of full recourse debt for a luxury waterfront condominium tower and $110 million of debt for a mixed-use development with 5,350 planned residential units.

Admissions

  • Pennsylvania
  • New Jersey

Education

  • Drexel University, Thomas R. Kline School of Law, J.D., 2016
    (Dean's Scholar and Rising Merit Scholar)
  • Georgetown University, B.A., 2008

Experience

  • Duane Morris LLP
    - Partner, 2026-present
    - Senior Associate, 2025
    - Associate, 2016-2024
    - Law Clerk, 2015-2016
  • O'Neill Properties Group, LP
    - Senior Project Manager, 2011-2014
    - Project Manager, 2008-2010
  • United States Congress, Office of the Speaker
    - Congressional Intern, 2008

Professional Activities

  • American Bar Association
  • Philadelphia Bar Association

Honors and Awards

  • Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, 2025-2027
  • Named to Best Lawyers "Ones to Watch," 2024
  • Recipient of the 15th Annual Duane Morris Pro Bono Award, 2021
  • Listed in Philadelphia Super Lawyers

No aspect of these rankings has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Further information on methodologies is available via these links.

Civic and Charitable Activities

  • Children's Advocacy Centers of Pennsylvania, Board of Directors

  • Variety – the Children's Charity, Board of Directors, 2011-2015
  • United Way of Philadelphia, Leader
  • Center City Residents Association, Member
  • Rittenhouse Savoy Owner's Association (Condominium), Council Member, 2017-2019

Selected Publications