Steven Retterath incorporated General Crane, Inc. in the state of Florida in October 1980. According to the General Crane USA website, the company has been operating in south Florida since 1972.

Other members of the Retterath family, including Steven’s brother, Robert, and his sons, Jason and Andrew, also worked for General Crane. The company grew steadily during the 1980s and 90s, absorbing at least two smaller crane businesses.

Robert Retterath now runs his own crane business called Hi-Rise Crane, Inc., based in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Andrew Retterath also owns a crane company called Precision Crane & Rigging, Inc., which is headquartered near General Crane’s yard in Pompano Beach.

In September 1994, Steven Retterath incorporated another entity called General Crane (USA), Inc. This company remains active and in 2006 took out numerous loans to acquire nine (9) Liebherr mobile cranes.

2002 was a busy year for Steven Retterath. In December, he completed a multi-year process of selling the assets of his main company, General Crane, to Gulfstream Crane, LLC (aka General Crane USA), a company controlled by Jason Retterath and James Robertson. Steven still owns the headquarters property for the General Crane USA yard, and he continues to receive rent payments from the company.

The sale, however, did not usher Steven Retterath out of the crane business. That same year he teamed with Jason Retterath and James Robertson to acquire the assets of two additional crane companies, Hunter Crane and Merchant Transport.

According to corporate records, Mr. Retterath is also an officer alongside Jim Robertson and his son, Jason, in at least two other crane rental companies: Republic Tower & Hoist, LLC and United Crane and Rigging, LLC.

Steven Retterath also created entities to purchase the crane yards for the new companies. Palm Beach Land, LLC incorporated in June 2002, purchased the Merchant Transport yard in July of that year for $1,300,000. Delray Land Holdings, LLC incorporated in November 2002, purchased the Hunter Crane yard in December 2002 and January 2003 for a total of $1,405,000. Steven Retterath is the sole owner of both entities.

In April 2007, Retterath took out a mortgage loan from CNLBank for $13,140,000, using the crane yard properties for Hunter Crane, Merchant Transport and General Crane USA as collateral.

In November 2009 Wells Fargo Equipment Finances, Inc. sued General Crane USA for allegedly defaulting on loans payments worth nearly $12 million. Wells Fargo named Steven Retterath personally responsible for nearly $1.7 million. Following Mr. Retterath’s sale of General Crane in 2002 he began a new career as an investor in Midwestern ethanol factories.

Steven is steadily increasing his influence in the Midwest ethanol production world. His three main investments, Golden Grain Energy, Homeland Energy Solutions, and Absolute Energy, have seen increased business and he has slowly expanded his controlling interest in each company. Click on the link below to learn more.

Steve Retterath Ethanol Investments

In April 2010, Comerica Leasing sued Republic Tower & Hoist (of which Steven Retterath is an officer) for $3.3 million for failing to make loan payments. Just a few weeks earlier, De Lage Landen filed a similar claim for $2 million against Republic. Both companies are seeking to repossess equipment from Republic.

On May 10, 2010, Steven Retterath filed a motion against General Crane USA seeking unpaid rent dating back to January 2010. As previously reported, Steven owns the General Crane HQ property for which General pays $33,000 per month.