060619 SWB DIGITAL EDITION

www.SouthwestOrlandoBulletin.com x June 6 — 19, 2019 x 9
From Dream to Dynasty
Happy 45th Birthday to Rosen Hotels & Resorts!
On June 24, Rosen Hotels &
Resorts Inc. will celebrate its 45th
business anniversary! When Harris
Rosen, the company’s president
and COO, was asked what this approaching
milestone means to him,
he graciously spent an hour of his
packed schedule relaying the story
of his life. The truth is his personal
tale and professional success story
are one and the same. An intensely
focused businessman, Rosen is also
a charming storyteller who enjoys
recalling a past that shaped him into
the entrepreneurial and compassionate
man he is today.
Born on the Lower East Side of
New York City at 18 Monroe St.,
Rosen is the grandson of Austria-
Hungary and Russian immigrants.
He and his younger brother were
very happy living in a city that offered
so many experiences and
possibilities. They “never wanted to
leave the neighborhood.”
One day, as a youth, Rosen was
walking down a New York street and
stopped to watch a crew shooting the
film Somebody Up There Likes Me.
The lead actor was Paul Newman,
and Rosen found himself standing
right next to the star. Then he heard
the director asking if he would like to
“be in the movies.” Rosen was given
the direction to walk across the street
during the scene, which he did, but
he is not sure if his film debut made it
onto the screen.
The chance encounter, however,
convinced him living in Manhattan
between “the East River, Little Italy
and China Town offered wonderful
opportunities.”
It wasn’t until he was attending
a local arts-and-music high
school that Rosen’s mother pointed
out, “If you ever want to make it in
the world, you need to leave the
neighborhood.”
He took his mother’s advice, studied
hard and was the first in his family
to graduate from college. With
a degree in hospitality from Cornell
University and after a three-year
stint in the Army, Rosen landed his
first job at the Waldorf Astoria New
York. This led to many other hotel positions.
In 1968, he joined the Disney
company in California, which ultimately
took him to Orlando, where
in 1971, he was part of the team that
opened several Walt Disney World
hotels.
From his time served in the military,
Rosen appreciated the value of
rules and regimentation. Although
he loved helping develop the original
Disney hotels, he found it easier
to live by his own rules and his
principles of faith, dedication, hard
work, respect for others and passion
for success. Rosen wanted to run his
own business and apply those guidelines.
He wanted to live his version of
the American dream.
Many know the story of the start
of Rosen’s rise to success. In 1974,
at age 34, he was driving down
International Drive and saw a small,
two-story, 256-room Quality Inn for
sale. He thought it was a smart investment.
Being single with responsibility
to no one but himself, Rosen
emptied his bank account of his
$20,000 life savings, negotiated
with Travelers Insurance Co., and
purchased the hotel. He felt good
about his acquisition until he learned
that with the purchase, he also assumed
a $2.5 million mortgage. The
PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
debt amounted to a yearly payment
of $250,000.
Realizing his investment would
never make money while paying
off the loan and being a resourceful
young man, Rosen knew he first had
to reduce staff size. He moved into
the hotel and personally became
the general manager, housekeeper,
landscaper and assistant chef. His
security staff was a large German
shepherd. Rosen became the hotel’s
resident manager, and he lived there
for the next 16 years. He saved a
lot of money and made his mortgage
payments on time.
The early ’70s witnessed the
“depth of the oil embargo” and
Orlando tourism was down 30%
to 40%. Rosen recognized that tour
buses seemed to have enough gas
to drive groups to his city from places
like New York, Philadelphia and
Boston. He hitchhiked to Jacksonville
and then to NYC to meet with large
motor coach owners. He told them,
“I want your business” and offered
each company a drastically reduced
nightly room rate that he guaranteed
would be honored for the next two
years. After his first deal was struck,
each company provided him free
bus transportation to the other cities.
Six months later, the buses began
to come to his hotel and, to this
day, continue to partner with Rosen
Hotels & Resorts.
Rosen’s success allows him to be a
very generous man. His philanthropic
volunteer foundation is legendary
for its financial support. The donations
almost always have something
to do with education, which he credits
to his mother’s early guidance.
His Tangelo Park and Parramore
programs provide support from preschool
to post-secondary education
in at-risk Orlando communities. The
Harris Rosen Foundation recently
awarded 20 scholarships to
students living in Tangelo Park who
graduated from Dr. Phillips High
School, including three full scholarships
to Rollins College.
Since 1993, Rosen has provided
his associates with low-cost, comprehensive
health care, known as
Rosencare. In 2012, he expanded
the program with the free-standing
Rosen Medical Center. He considers
his staff “family” and takes
care of them. He says the plan could
be a template for an American
health care system.
From his second-story office in the
original Quality Inn, Rosen is making
plans to add rooms to two of his
eight properties. Planned additions
to the 1334-room Rosen Centre
and 1501-room Rosen Shingle
Creek will increase the company’s
total hotel rooms to more than 7,700.
Even so, he has never forgotten
his humble beginnings on the Lower
East Side. Several of his hotel restaurants
and venues bear the names
of his ancestors. For example, the
lobby bar at Rosen Centre is called
“Sam and Bubbe’s” and is named
for his grandparents on his mother’s
side. It features a “nosh” menu, serving
the best matzo ball soup, blintzes
and chopped liver outside of
Manhattan.
Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ award-winning hotels include
Rosen Inn International, Rosen Inn, Rosen Inn
at Pointe Orlando, Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista,
Midpointe Hotel, Rosen Plaza, Rosen Centre and
Rosen Shingle Creek. For more information, visit
www.rosenhotels.com. ª