A family firm with a century of experience and expertise

Grover Connell became president at the age of 31 in 1950, after the sudden death of his father Grover Cleveland Connell. While continuing to grow the company’s domestic business, Grover greatly expanded Connell’s international rice operations, eventually leading the company to become the world’s largest rice traders.

From its founding, Connell was a significant broker of sugar, selling domestic sugar to the food production industry. The company expanded its operations and entered into commodity consulting with commercial clients, becoming known as Connell Purchasing Services, a major outsourcing-purchasing agent for companies. Connell’s professional price analysts provided its clients with intensive research and publication on the agricultural economy, later opening a Chicago office in 1972.

Operating throughout the world, Connell Rice & Sugar Co. exported domestically grown rice, as well as rice grown in the Far East and other areas, to over one hundred countries.  Within the US, Connell was a large distributor, supplying rice to the brewing industry, wholesalers, food processors and retail chains. Connell not only bought and sold all types of rice, but also handled the storage, toll milling and transportation. Connell’s success in the rice industry provided it with a strong capital base allowing it to expand into other businesses and diversify its operations.  Connell’s view is that every business has a lifecycle and that diversification allows it  to adapt to world economic events.

Connell Foods, Inc. provided all segments of the food industry with high quality, competitively priced, imported canned food products for more than 50 countries.  Connell distributed canned goods throughout the United States to supermarkets, cooperatives, wholesale grocers, institutional distributors, food processors and drug and restaurant chains. Connell maintained inventories in countries of origin and in warehouses domestically with offices in Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines until 2000.

The Connell Company formed Connell Finance Company, Inc. to protect its hard-earned profits from the ravages of inflation. Connell Finance entered its first leveraged lease deal, acquiring 36 – 1500hp locomotives leased to the CP/Soo Line Railroad. Connell’s equipment ownership philosophy is to own assets for their full economic useful life and maximize earnings of ownership through renewal lease rents. As an example, these EMD MP15 locomotives have continued to be desirable units and have benefited from multiple renewals with various railroads and are still on lease and owned by Connell after over 35 years.

Connell and J.P. Morgan jointly acquired 49 3000hp SD40-2 and 22 GE C30-7 locomotives for $45,721,297 and leased them to the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company.  Over the years, Connell has jointly invested in over $375 million of equipment with partners, which have included GE Capital, J.P. Morgan, Household Finance Co., Norwest Bank, Mitsui & Co., Sumitomo Corporation and Textron Financial Corp.

The financing of 88 tri-level auto rack cars for CSX was Connell Finance’s first transaction as a financial advisor. Since then, Connell Finance has been a financial advisor in over $6.5 billion worth of equipment. Connell Finance became recognized as one of the premier asset based finance advisors in the US, and one of the few advisors willing to risk any and all of its advisory compensation on the long term value of the financed asset. Connell’s advisory business provided advisory services to both lessees and lessors and arranged for private equity and venture capital investments.

Connell entered the real estate business and established an operating division, now known as Connell Real Estate & Development Co. (CRE&D) with the purchase of a 44 acre undeveloped site in central New Jersey on Interstate 78 in Berkeley Heights. Connell developed 100 Connell Drive on the site, a 428,000 square foot building which, when completed in 1984, was the largest speculative building ever built in New Jersey.  When completed, AT&T leased the entire building for 17 years.  After AT&T vacated the building, CRE&D completed a $7 million renovation of the building and shortly thereafter completely leased the building to AIG and EMC.

In 1982, Connell Finance Company, Inc. entered into a joint venture with Clark Material Handling, to provide lease financing to all of Clark’s forklift customers.  This program lasted for several years and led to Connell Finance creating a business to provide independent single investor lease financing for material handling equipment to high quality companies.  In 1997, as a result of significant growth, Connell Finance established Connell Equipment Leasing Company (CELCO) as a separate division.

Connell continued to buy land surrounding 100 Connell Drive, creating what became Connell Corporate Park, a 185 acre class A office park with direct access off of Interstate 78.  In 1985, Connell formed the company that became Connell Mining Products LLC to supply mines around the world with parts, components and equipment.

Connell was engaged by NationsBank to arrange the sale and leaseback of 15 office / operations properties located in seven states, a deal valued at $323 million.  Although the primary lease term was 25 years, Connell developed an innovative leveraged lease structure which allowed NationsBank ultimate flexibility to vacate certain percentages of space in regular intervals without penalty as early as 3 years after lease commencement. Altogether Connell arranged and/or participated in almost $1.5 billion of real estate structured finance transactions and retained future interests in over 230 properties, including the NationsBank properties.

In 2007, Connell bought a five acre site and developed Old Colony Square, its first multifamily / retail development project and the first outside of New Jersey. Old Colony Square at Cohasset Station is a transit-oriented development located next to the new MBTA Greenbush Line rail station, 20 miles south of Boston. In 2010, Connell entered the multifamily business with the acquisition of The Estates at Canyon Ridge, a 270-unit apartment complex located in San Antonio, Texas, and Ten Wine Lofts, an 82 unit unfinished luxury condominium, which Connell completed construction on and turned into a high-end luxury apartment complex.

In 2011, Connell left the rice business after 85 years. In 2012, Connell Equipment Leasing Company hit the $1 billion mark, by acquiring and leasing $1 billion of equipment to its customers. Connell achieved this funding milestone without the use of any debt. The company has tens of thousands of pieces of equipment on lease throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Iceland, and Norway.

In 2013, Connell acquired a majority interest in the joint venture development of Domain West, a planned 333-unit, Class A+ apartment community with a wrapped parking deck, located in the Memorial section of the Energy Corridor in Houston, Texas. Connell would go on to develop properties in Scottsdale, Seattle, Portland and other US cities.

Connell created its hospitality group to expand into the hotel business, create restaurant, entertainment and food service concepts and operate its office properties with a hospitality-led approach to services and amenities.