NASDAQ: WHLRL

For additional information on recent business developments, see Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in this Form 10-K.

Portfolio

Our portfolio contains retail properties in secondary and tertiary markets, with a particular emphasis on grocery-anchored retail centers. Our properties are in communities that have stable demographics and have historically exhibited favorable trends, such as well-established population and steady income growth. We generally lease our properties to national and regional retailers that offer consumer goods and services and generate regular consumer traffic. We believe our tenants carry goods and offer services that are less impacted by fluctuations in the broader U.S. economy and consumers’ disposable income, generating more predictable property level cash flows.

The Company’s portfolio of properties is dependent upon regional and local economic conditions. As of December 31, 2025, we own a portfolio consisting of sixty-five properties, including sixty-two retail shopping centers, totaling 7,018,837 leasable square feet which is 94.3% leased (our "Operating Portfolio"), and three undeveloped land parcels totaling approximately 7 acres. The properties are geographically located in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Northeast, which markets represented approximately 47%, 45% and 8%, respectively, of the total annualized base rent of the properties in its portfolio as of December 31, 2025.

No tenant represents greater than approximately 6% of the Company’s annualized base rent or 7% of gross leasable square footage. The top 10 tenants account for 22.5% or $15.6 million of annualized base rent and 25.5% or 1.8 million of gross leasable square footage at December 31, 2025.

Human Capital Management

As of December 31, 2025, we have 49 full-time employees. We seek to hire experienced leaders and team members by offering competitive wages and benefit programs. Employees are offered flexibility to meet personal and family needs. In addition to medical insurance support, the Company offers wellness programs, including free short- and long-term disability insurance, free basic life insurance policy with accidental death and dismemberment coverage, employee assistance programs

3

that include emotional health support, gym memberships, volunteer time off and tuition assistance. Tuition assistance includes assistance to learn a new language as the Company identifies opportunities to better serve a diverse tenant base.

The Company takes steps to measure and improve upon its level of employee engagement all while creating value for our stakeholders. The Company’s employees are expected to exhibit honest, ethical and respectful conduct in the workplace. Every year, the Company requires its employees to review and certify their compliance with the Company's various policies, including its Code of Business Conduct and Ethics (the “Code of Conduct”).

Business Objectives and Investment Strategy

Our primary business objective is to maximize the value of our portfolio. We intend to achieve this objective utilizing the following investment strategies:

•Focus on necessity-based retail. We own and operate retail properties that serve the essential day-to-day shopping needs of the surrounding communities. These necessity-based centers attract high levels of daily traffic resulting in cross-selling of goods and services from our tenants. The majority of our tenants provide non-cyclical consumer goods and services that are less impacted by fluctuations in the economy. We believe these centers that provide essential goods and services such as groceries result in a stable, lower-risk portfolio of retail investment properties.

•Focus on secondary and tertiary markets with strong demographics and demand. Our properties are in markets that have strong demographics such as population density, population stability, consistent tenant sales trends and growth in household income. We seek to identify new tenants and renew leases with existing tenants in these locations that support the need for necessity-based retail and limited new supply. We aim to identify and pursue attractive investment opportunities in regions with low taxes and a pro-business environment.

•Increase operating income through leasing strategies and expense management. We employ intensive lease management strategies to optimize occupancy. Management has extensive expertise in acquiring and managing under-performing properties and increasing operating income through more effective leasing strategies and expense management. Our leases generally require the tenant to reimburse us for a substantial portion of the expenses incurred in operating, maintaining, repairing, and managing the shopping center and the common areas, along with the associated insurance costs and real estate taxes. In many cases, the tenant is either fully or partially responsible for all maintenance of the property, thereby limiting our financial exposure towards maintaining the center and increasing our net income. We refer to this arrangement as a "triple net lease."

•Selectively utilize our capital to improve retail properties. We intend to make capital investments where the risk adjusted returns on such capital is accretive to our stockholders. We allocate capital to value-added improvements of retail properties to increase rents, extend long-term leases with anchor tenants and increase occupancy. We selectively allocate capital to revenue enhancing projects that we believe will improve the market position of a given property.

•Recycling and sensible management of our property portfolio. We intend to sell non-income producing land parcels or non-core assets utilizing sales proceeds to deleverage the balance sheet and invest in higher yielding opportunities. Properties may be slated for disposition based upon management's periodic review of our portfolio, and approval by our Board of Directors (the "Board of Directors").

•Strategy for optimizing capital structure. The Company seeks to mitigate risk and optimize its capital structure through continuous focus on maintaining prudent leverage and lengthy average debt maturities, as well as access to a diverse selection of capital sources, including the secured and unsecured debt markets, unsecured lines of credit, and other sources. In addition, the Company has reduced and intends to continue to reduce the total outstanding preferred stock of the Company and that of Cedar through the following strategies:

◦Exchanging shares of its Common Stock for its Series B Convertible Preferred Stock ("Series B Preferred Stock") and/or its Series D Preferred Stock with the holders thereof as opportunities arise.

◦Repurchasing the Cedar Preferred Stock as both series of preferred stock are currently trading at a discount to their liquidation value, presenting a strategic opportunity to buy back shares at favorable prices. By reducing the number of shares outstanding that are eligible for dividend payments, we can offset the net operating income lost from the recent sales of certain properties.

4

◦Issuing shares of its Series D Preferred Stock in consideration for shares of Cedar Preferred Stock, as opportunities arise.

These strategies and transactions are intended to enhance the Company's financial stability, strengthen its balance sheet, optimize its capital allocation, and maximize shareholder value.

•Strategy for integrating acquisitions. As the Company undertakes acquisitions, we seek to thoughtfully integrate the acquired properties and any software and personnel to maximize efficiencies both at the property and corporate level.

Governmental Regulations Affecting Our Properties

We and our properties are subject to a variety of federal, state and local environmental, health, safety, tax and similar laws. The application of these laws to a specific property that we own depends on a variety of property-specific circumstances, including the current and former uses of the property, the building materials used at the property and the physical layout of the property. Neither existing environmental, health, safety and similar laws nor the costs of our compliance with these laws have had a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations, and management does not believe they will for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2026. In addition, we have not incurred, and do not expect to incur, any material costs or liabilities due to environmental contamination at properties we currently own or have owned in the past. However, we cannot predict the impact of new or changed laws or regulations on properties we currently own or may acquire in the future. We have no current plans for substantial capital expenditures with respect to compliance with environmental, health, safety and similar laws and we carry environmental insurance that covers a number of environmental risks for most of our properties.

Competition

Numerous commercial developers and real estate companies compete with us with respect to the leasing of properties. Some of these competitors may possess greater capital resources than we do, although we do not believe that any single competitor or group of competitors in any of the primary markets where our properties are located are dominant in that market. This competition may interfere with our ability to attract and retain tenants, leading to increased vacancy rates and/or reduced rents and adversely affect our ability to minimize operating expenses.

Retailers at our properties also face competition from online retailers, outlet stores, discount shopping clubs, superstores, and other forms of sales and marketing of goods and services, such as direct mail. This competition could contribute to lease defaults and insolvency of tenants.

Climate

Some of our properties could be subject to natural or other disasters. In addition, we may acquire properties that are located in areas that are subject to natural disasters, such as earthquakes and droughts. Because of the geographic concentration of our properties, a single severe weather event or natural disaster could impact multiple of our properties. Properties could also be affected by increases in the frequency or severity of tornadoes, hurricanes or other severe weather, whether such increases are caused by global climate changes or other factors. The occurrence of natural disasters or severe weather conditions can increase investment costs to repair or replace damaged properties, increase operating costs, increase future property insurance costs, and/or negatively impact the tenant demand for lease space. If insurance is unavailable to us, or is unavailable on acceptable terms, or if our insurance is not adequate to cover business interruption or losses from such events, our earnings, liquidity and/or capital resources could be adversely affected. While several of our properties are located in areas that have experienced hurricanes, tornados, severe rain storms, or snow during the past two years, there has been no substantial damage or change in operations related to weather events.

Insurance

The Company carries comprehensive liability, property, fire, flood, wind, extended coverage, business interruption and rental loss insurance covering all of the properties in its portfolio under an insurance policy, in addition to other coverages, such as trademark and pollution coverage that may be appropriate for certain of its properties. The Company carries a directors’, officers’, entity and employment practices liability insurance policy that covers such claims made against the Company and its directors and officers. The Company also carries an auto policy to protect employees that use personal automobiles for work purposes above the employees insurance coverage and for the Company’s protection against potential liability. The Company

5

believes the policy specifications and insured limits are appropriate and adequate for its properties and the other covered items given the relative risk of loss, the cost of the coverage, requirements from any and all lenders and general industry practice; however, its insurance coverage may not be sufficient to fully cover losses.

Available Information

We are subject to the information reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. Therefore, we file reports, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). The SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, including us.

Additionally, we make available free of charge through our website https://www.whlr.us our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our audited consolidated financial statements, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, including exhibits, and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file or furnish such materials to the SEC. The content of our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our website is intended to be inactive textual references only.

Investors and others should note that we currently announce material information using SEC filings and press releases. In the future, we will continue to use these channels to distribute material information about the Company, and may also utilize public conference calls, webcasts, our website and/or various social media sites to communicate important information about the Company, key personnel, trends, corporate initiatives and other matters. Information that we post on our website or on social media channels could be deemed material; therefore, investors, the media, our customers, business partners and others interested in the Company should review the information posted on our website as well as on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/wheeler-real-estate-investment-trust/, in addition to following the Company’s press releases and SEC filings. Any updates to the list of social media channels we may use to communicate material information will be posted on the Investor Relations page of our website at https://www.whlr.us. The information we post through these channels is not a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other document we file with the SEC, and the inclusion of our website addresses and LinkedIn account are as inactive textual references only.