Connor led E&Y's Philadelphia real estate practice and specialized in assurance and advisory services to public and private owners, developers, investors and operators of commercial, residential and hotel properties. At O'Neill, his responsibilities will include enhancing project profitability, process improvement and operations. He'll be responsible for the accounting, human resources and information-technology functions.

At the same time, Jon Robinson, who has held the CFO post at O'Neill since 2002, has been promoted to executive vice president. He will be responsible for portfolio strategy, partner relationships and equity raising initiatives.

O'Neill specializes in acquiring brownfields and other underutilized sites and redeveloping them into mixed-use, class A office, retail and residential complexes. Among the projects under way are the 26-acre Millennium Corporate Center in Conshohocken and the 77-acre former Worthington Steel site in Malvern.