Tony Giarratana began working in commercial real estate while at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Giarratana graduated with a degree in Business Administration. Upon graduation, he worked with Merrill Lynch Realty Rodgers & Cummings in the Tampa Bay area from 1979 to 1981.

He moved to Denver in 1981 to serve as leasing director for Urban Investment & Development Company until 1983. Following a brief association with Joseph C. Canizaro Interests in New Orleans, he moved to Nashville in 1984 to join Aladdin Resources as director of leasing for Metro Center.

In 1986 he formed his own real estate brokerage firm and transformed into a full development company by 1990. From 1992-1994, Giarratana worked with Brazos, and affiliate of Robert M. Bass and the FDIC, in Los Angeles and Dallas, where he participated in the acquisition and disposition of a $3.7 billion portfolio of notes and real estate. He relocated to Nashville in 1994.