With a smile on his face, Kevin Hyland could hardly hide his excitement when talking about The Connor Group’s accomplishments in 2021. His “love for the game” is evident. And he’s one of the key players that led us to close 38 transactions over the last 365 days.
“To put that into context, we closed a deal every seven business days,” Kevin said. “When you tell people we closed 38 deals, they have no context. Nothing to compare it to. When you realize we closed one deal every seven business days, the weight of our work really resonates.”
Even as the books close on an incredibly successful 2021, the Acquisitions, Dispositions, Debt and Analytics team isn’t satisfied.
“We have the people in place to complete $3 billion in transactions, but to get to $5 billion, we need to develop them, add more of the right people, and improve processes,” partner Brock Wright explained. “We are constantly evolving and improving.”
With the foundation solidly in place, Brock and his team are keeping their feet on the gas as we head into 2022. But as they glanced in the rear-view mirror, there were certainly some noteworthy accomplishments:
- We closed $1.07 billion in transactions in 30 days between November and December. It used to take us an entire year to close this level of transactional volume.
- We underwrote 190 deals and bought 10 properties, proving how competitive the market is and how selective we continue to be buying properties.
- We broke the record for the largest property sale in company history twice this year, first with the $157 million sale of Anchor Riverwalk in August. We shattered that record four months later with the $278.5 million sale of West Village.
There were also lessons learned and challenges to overcome – for example, River Oaks in Columbus, Ohio.
“Hands down, that was the most difficult transaction,” Kevin said. “I worked on that deal for 11 months. We had to fire the first buyer, and it was incredibly complicated. We did a lot split, something we’ve never done before. I don’t want to re-live that ever again.”
Brock and Kevin were completely aligned; River Oaks gave the team a run for their money.
“We drew a hard line in the sand at an outrageous price and parted ways with the first buyer. Finding a second buyer wasn’t easy, but we were successful, and it paid off. We believe the land we kept is worth $1.5 – $3 million.”
As we kick off 2022, this elite group is planning to raise the bar yet again.
“There’s no pause,” Kevin Hyland said. “When I look back at 2021, I think, ‘That was crazy,’ but that’s what we do. We have a team of seven people who are doing what other companies do with teams double or triple our size. We do more with less by design. It’s our culture, and it’s who we are.”