Mr. Thornton began his career with Southeast Bank, N.A. as a Commercial Loan Officer, responsible for the initiation and management of a real estate loan portfolios.  This included the origination and monitoring of construction progress and funding draw requests for real estate loans.  In 1990 he joined Faison Associates as a Leasing Representative where he was responsible for coordinating the marketing and leasing of 430,000 square feet of office and industrial space. While with Faison Associates, Mr. Thornton leased approximately 150,000 square feet.  In 1993, Mr. Thornton joined the real estate department at GATX Logistics, Inc. as a Property Manager.  He was responsible for assisting in the management and leasing of 136 facilities, consisting of approximately 23,000,000 square feet.  In December of 1993 Mr. Thornton joined Phoenix Realty Group as a Leasing Specialist focusing primarily on the suburban office market.  While at Phoenix, Mr. Thornton leased over 300,000 square feet of office and industrial space. 
 
In 1996, J. Patrick Thornton II joined Hallmark Partners as its Director of Marketing and in 1998 Mr. Thornton was appointed Principal.  Since joining the company, Mr. Thornton has leased 4.5 million square feet of office and industrial space in Jacksonville.
 
Mr. Thornton has a B.A. degree in Business Economics from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina and completed the Executive Education Program at Harvard University in 2003.
 
He is former President of the Jacksonville Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) and has served on the local Board for the past six years.  He is also a member of the Commercial Development Task Force of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, past Chairman of The Seton Club, a charitable foundation of St. Vincent’s Hospital and has volunteered at San Jose Catholic School for seventeen years as the boys basketball coach.