Rocky Horde

Practices

• Real Estate

Professional Experience

Rocky is senior counsel in Thompson Hines Real Estate practice group. His primary focus is real estate and commercial finance, including financing, acquisition, operation and disposition of golf clubs, resorts, hotels and marinas. Rocky also has more than 18 years of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loan origination experience.

Rocky is licensed to practice in Georgia and California.

Education

• Vanderbilt University School of Law, J.D., 1985
• Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1982, cum laude

Rocky's experience includes:

• Representing client in the sale of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Reynolds Plantation at Lake Oconee, Georgia
• Serving as division counsel to Textron Financial Corporation’s Golf Finance Division, advised internal clients on all legal aspects of originating, administering, modifying, foreclosing (and deeds in lieu thereof), sales out of bankruptcy, and receiverships for loans on more than 100 properties, including golf clubs, marinas, hotels and unimproved proposed sites for each.
• Serving as originator’s counsel on A/B participations with a national insurance company.
• Serving as CEO and general counsel for a Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) aggregation program.
• Counseling and documenting an insurance company’s joint ventures with real estate developers for the construction and, where applicable, leasing of industrial, office, hotel and residential projects.
• Representing clients in the purchase and sale of various mortgage and other asset-based loan and lease portfolios.
• Representing a money center lending institution in the sale-leaseback of its printing facility.
• Serving as lead counsel in connection with the sale and seller-financing of high-rise office towers in Los Angeles and Chicago.
• Representing a client in its acquisition of a pistachio-hulling facility in California.
• Handling the acquisition and financing of Moe’s Southwest Grill franchise locations in Massachusetts.
• Serving as lead counsel in connection with the structuring and documentation of all real estate and personal property aspects of a $100 million mixed collateral loan to a California REIT secured by properties in 27 states.
• Negotiating, documenting and closing a large mezzanine credit facility on behalf of a national shopping center developer.
• Documenting all real estate security elements of a leveraged buyout (LBO) of a construction company in Hawaii.
• Negotiating and documenting the restructure of a peso-denominated facility for an equipment leasing company based in Monterrey, Mexico.
• Representing a Japanese bank in the negotiation and documentation of a partnership agreement with a New York developer on a Park Avenue office tower as part of a larger convertible mortgage transaction.
• Representing a client in its sale of numerous timberland tracts in Georgia.
• Representing a client in its sale of excess floor area ratio in a downtown Los Angeles office tower development.
• Leading the due diligence investigation for the acquisition of 14 large loan assets from a failing national bank and 10 other large loan assets from another failing lending institution.
• Negotiating and documenting various build-to-suit, guaranteed maximum and cost-plus construction contracts and related architect agreements on behalf of an insurance company investor in joint ventures.
• Assisting the chairman of California State Assembly Committee on Banking and Finance in the drafting of two statutes to protect California lenders secured by letters of credit and guarantees.

• “A New Take on Takings: The U.S. Supreme Court’s Recent Decision in Koontz and How It Affects Real Estate Developers”, Law 360, May 2013
• Co-Author, “Buy-Sell Agreements and Succession Planning”, General Electric customer publication, Spring 2013

• "Will it ever recover?" What you can expect from the Georgia and national real estate markets in 2013 and beyond, Global Capital Connection, Atlanta, February 2013
• “The Roller Coaster of CMBS” - iGlobal Forum, 2nd Annual Securitization Finance Summit, New York, 2012
• “Commercial Real Estate Financing”, Atlanta, 2007
• “Commercial Real Estate Financing”, Atlanta, 2006

Six Sigma Green Belt