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ose was only two years out of bC in 1978 when he bought his
first boston property, a townhouse in the back bay he converted
to condominiums. “I rode that wave – condo conversion – for
5-6 years,” he said. “I converted about a dozen buildings.”
at includes one he wishes he didn’t sell. “I bought 234 beacon
St. for $170,000,” he said. “It’s worth about $10 million now.”
You win some, you lose some, but three decades later rose can
count many more Ws – which is not surprising, considering the
championship culture in which he grew up in Swampscott.
“I wouldn’t trade my high school experience with anybody,” said
rose, an outstanding athlete and member of the SHS Class of
1969 who played when Swampscott was at its athletic zenith.
rose’s teammates included Dick Jauron, bill Adams and Tom
Toner – all future NFl players – and a host of other stars: Carl
Kester, Sandy Tennant, lloyd benson, David Karas, Phil Abrams,
John Squires.
Jauron, who went to Yale and played (for 8
years) and coached (for 28, including 9 as a head
coach) in the NFl, said he and rose met in
ninth grade. “He was very smart, very tough,
very blunt, very caring, and a great teammate.
I don’t think he’s ever changed and don’t believe
he ever will.
“I feel lucky to call him my friend,” Jauron said.
rose played on undefeated Class b championship
football teams in 1967 and 1968, the latter of
which many consider the best in thehistory of
Swampscott High. e basketball team won the 1968 Tech
Tourney. He was an all-conference baseball player for Frank
DeFelice, who was also his line coach in football and someone who
le an indelible impression on him.
“Frank was the best,” rose said. “In the locker room aer the
marblehead game my senior year, he came over and said, ‘let me
help you take off your jersey. For all the shit I gave you it’s the least
I can do.’ I started to tear up. It really struck me.”
e bond between rose and DeFelice has only strengthened
over the last 50 years. “Other than my father, Frank is the most
influential man in my life,” rose said. “I’ve loved him ever since.”
rose may have
inherited his
entrepreneurship
from his late father,
robert, who owned
e Designer Shop,
a dress shop in lynn
and Swampscott.
benson played next to rose on the offensive line and the pair have
not strayed far apart since.
“Andy was a great guy to play with because you could always count
on him, and the same is true 50 years later,” benson said.
rose played on the freshman football team at Harvard in 1969
but severed nerves and tendons in a finger and never played again.
He flunked the physical his sophomore year when he couldn’t
make a fist. “You don’t realize how fleeting sports is,” he said.
His burgeoning real estate career hit a fork in the road in the early
1980s, when a combination of burnout from the high intensity of
flipping houses and a tough economy led him to switch gears. In
his first foray into commercial real estate, he bought the old miller
Ford property on Pleasant Street in marblehead from Nils Strom
in 1983, tearing the building down and building a plaza that he
still owns and that features a Starbucks.
e Swampscott mall had been built in 1973
on the site of the former Sunbeam Driving
range on Paradise road. rose and his partner,
mark Klaman, who had formed Centercorp in
1983 when they did the marblehead project,
made a deal to buy the mall in 1988. It took
four years for the deal to be consummated,
which turned out to be a windfall of sorts for
rose and Klaman, who paid less than half of
the original $10 million price due to another
faltering economy.
Centercorp still owns the 140,000-square-foot
property, which includes Stop & Shop, as well
as several other properties within a half-mile
(Citizens bank, Five Guys, boston market, North Shore Physicians
Group). It also owns property in New Hampshire, rhode Island
and Connecticut.
rose may have inherited his entrepreneurship from his late father,
robert, who owned e Designer Shop, a dress shop in lynn and
Swampscott, and later became a real-estate broker. rose’s mother,
Elinor, is still going strong at age 100.
rose and his wife, meryl, have two daughters, Sydney, who works
in New York, and Nikki, a freshman at Georgetown. He has never
lost the desire to compete, having run four marathons, earned
a black belt and participated in karate tournaments at the
national level.
e feeling is mutual.
“I’m very fortunate to have him as a friend,” DeFelice said. “I was
very aggressive in my young days as a coach – some would say
overaggressive – and Andy was a target. To have him as a good
friend today makes me feel good.”
It was at one of those competitions, at the university of Akron,
that rose’s high school memories came rushing back to him.
“I was trying to qualify for the nationals and I felt the same thrill
of competing as I did in high school,” he said. “I guess it never
leaves you.” n
SPRING 2016 | 5