Orlando Hotelier and Philanthropist Harris Rosen Awarded Coretta Scott King A.N.G.E.L. Award by The King Center, Atlanta

For more information, contact:
Robert Hubler,
(407) 639-4212, rhubler@RosenHotels.com

For photography, visit http://www.rosenhotels.com

ORLANDO (Jan. 23, 2015) – Orlando hotelier and philanthropist Harris Rosen, President & COO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®, received the Coretta Scott King A.N.G.E.L. Award at the 32nd Annual Salute to Greatness Awards Dinner presented by The King Center in Atlanta. The King Center, formally known as The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, was established in 1968 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King. The awards ceremony took place on Jan. 17, 2015 (in observance of the late Dr. King’s 86th birthday) at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Atlanta.

The awards event recognized just four honorees. The Salute to Greatness Award, one of the King Center’s highest honors, was awarded to former President Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, and to Bernard J. Tyson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente. The Coretta Scott King A.N.G.E.L. (Advancing Nonviolence through Generations of Exceptional Leadership) Award was given to Harris Rosen and to Aidan Thomas Hornaday, founder of the Aidan Cares Foundation. The award is given in honor of and in keeping with the spirit of the late Coretta Scott King and recognizes a youth or young adult and a youth organization/initiative which exemplifies exceptional leadership in the areas of peace, social justice and nonviolent social change. The honor was established and awarded for the first time in 2013.

Rosen was being recognized for his more than 20 year commitment to the Tangelo Park Program, a three-fold educational community service initiative within the once drug- and crime-ridden Tangelo Park neighborhood of Orlando. In 1992, as Rosen was planning his seventh property, Rosen Shingle Creek®, he was struck with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for his many blessings and decided it was time to give back to his community. By 1993, he had created the Tangelo Park Program, a personally funded concept. His innovative program provides free preschool for every two-, three-, and four-year-old child living in the neighborhood and a full community college or four-year college, or a vocational or technical school scholarship for every graduating high school senior. In addition, the program provides a Neighborhood Center for Families where parents can take parenting courses and obtain counseling and other resources to help them become positive role models for their children.

When Rosen created the Tangelo Park Program, the community’s high school dropout rate was 43 percent higher than the national average. Not long after the program began, high school graduation rates soared with an almost zero dropout rate. To date, more than 280 young people have now attended college or vocational school.
“I am so honored that the Tangelo Park Program has been recognized by The King Center and I am truly humbled to receive an award given in the spirit of Mrs. Coretta Scott King,” said Rosen. “I will be happy to accept the honor on behalf of the Tangelo Park community and especially all of the youngsters who have worked so hard over the past 20 years to better themselves through the gift of education.”

Established in 1968 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (“The King Center”) has been a global destination, resource center and community institution for over a quarter century. Nearly a million people each year make pilgrimage to the National Historic Site to learn, be inspired and pay their respects to Dr. King’s legacy.
Both a traditional memorial and programmatic nonprofit, the King Center was envisioned by its founder to be “no dead monument, but a living memorial filled with all the vitality that was his, a center of human endeavor, committed to the causes for which he lived and died.” That vision was carried out through educational and community programs until Mrs. King’s retirement in the mid-1990s, and today it is being revitalized.

Celebrating more than 40 years in business, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® comprises nearly 6,500 guest rooms at seven Orlando hotels: three convention properties – Rosen Plaza®®, Rosen Centre®® and Rosen Shingle Creek®, as well as four value-priced leisure properties – Rosen Inn International; Rosen Inn, closest to Universal; Rosen Inn at Pointe Orlando; and Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista. For more information, visit www.rosenhotels.com.

Award-Winning Convention Property Improves Conservation Efforts to Graduate from Two to Three Palm Designation

For more information, contact:
Robert Hubler
(407) 639-4212, rhubler@RosenHotels.com
For photography, visit https://www.rosenshinglecreek.com/photoGallery.asp

ORLANDO (Nov. 14, 2014) – Orlando’s Rosen Shingle Creek® is proud to announce that it has earned Three Palm Status in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Green Lodging Program. The award-winning hotel has been designated a Two Palm property since 2008.

The voluntary initiative designates and recognizes lodging facilities that make a commitment to conserve and protect Florida’s natural resources, offering designations at four levels. The program’s environmental guidelines allow the hospitality industry to evaluate its operations, set goals and take specific actions to continuously improve environmental performance. To become designated, facilities must conduct a thorough property assessment and implement a specified number of environmental practices in five areas of sustainable operations: Communication and Education (Customers, Employees, Public); Waste Reduction, Reuse and Recycling; Water Conservation; Energy Efficiency; and Indoor Air Quality.

“We at Rosen Shingle Creek® are proud to be named a Three Palm property and to demonstrate that environmental conservation and protection is not just a passing trend but a real priority for all of us at Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®,” said Leslie Menichini, VP of Sales and Marketing, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® Convention Properties. “We started this process before DEP’s program began, and we plan to continue our efforts, exceeding the state’s standards, because it’s a cause to which we are deeply committed.”

To earn Three Palm status, the 1,501-room convention and leisure property implemented several new programs and practices, on top of its existing energy-saving policies. Among them, its staff gives tours to college students and groups, speaks at outside conferences to promote green business practices, and promotes green meetings to incoming convention groups. The hotel provides a “green suggestions” box at the associate cafeteria and has dedicated an environmental section in its facility newsletter, as well as enrolling in Green Destination Orlando, a hospitality advocacy committee. Additionally, Rosen Shingle Creek® instituted a reduced packaging policy, uses refillable containers instead of single-use packets/containers, and prints all advertising, educational and promotional pieces on recycled paper.

In terms of facilities, the hotel installed photo sensors on toilets, urinals and faucets; installed tap flow controllers with auto shut-off; and uses final rinse water as pre-rinse water for subsequent cycles in its Milnor Tunnel energy-efficient washing machines. Rosen Shingle Creek® uses biodiesel from used cooking oil, an onsite renewable energy power source, and conducts periodic thermal imaging to look for leakages. A daily inspection of laundry exhaust vents, grounds equipment and vehicles keeps the machines running efficiently. The hotel uses LED exit lighting and programmable thermostats for HVAC, and also provides preferred parking locations for guests and staff driving fuel efficient vehicles. Rosen Hotels & Resorts®® is committed to conservation efforts in all its properties. The associate medical center, Rosen Medical Center, A Place for Healing and Wellness, was built in 2012 according to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certified standards as outlined by the U.S. Green Building Council. In 2007, Rosen Shingle Creek®, along with its sister properties, Rosen Plaza®® and Rosen Center, were among the first 50 properties – the top one percent in Florida – to receive One Palm designation. All three properties achieved Two Palm status the following year. The 800-room Rosen Plaza®® and 1,334-room Rosen Centre®® have retained their Two Palm lodging status. For more information about the Florida Green Lodging program, visit: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/greenlodging/default.htm

Forty years ago, with a single hotel and a dream, Harris Rosen changed Orlando’s meetings landscape forever.

For more information, contact:
Robert Hubler
407-639-4212, rhubler@RosenHotels.com

ORLANDO – (Oct. 15, 2014) – Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI), which serves the meetings and incentive marketplace with its Global Sales responsibilities for its membership of more than 160 Four- and Five-Diamond quality hotels and resorts worldwide, presented Rosen Shingle Creek® with its prestigious “Chairman’s Award” as the “ALHI Hotel of the Year” for 2014. The award is presented annually to the ALHI member hotel or resort that best displays exemplary leadership and commitment to performance in the preceding year, while epitomizing the ALHI Global Sales Organization (GSO) and property teamwork and cohesion in serving the meetings industry. The award was presented at ALHI’s prestigious Industry Advisory Council conference, which was recently held at the “new” Hotel del Coronado in Coronado (San Diego), California.

“We are very appreciative of this prestigious award, and more importantly, our relationship with ALHI,” said Dan Giordano, General Manager, Rosen Shingle Creek®. “Simply put, ALHI is an extended arm of our sales team, and we work closely together to ensure meeting planners and their attendees receive exceptional service.”

“Rosen Shingle Creek® in Orlando is especially deserving of this special recognition and award,” said David Gabri, CEO of ALHI. “It is an outstanding convention hotel complex with an extraordinary leadership team and staff, led by their owner Harris Rosen, and executive team of Dan and Leslie. They work so well with our valued clients and our ALHI Global Sales team in serving the meetings and incentive marketplace. We are proud to recognize Rosen Shingle Creek® with this distinguished honor.”

“We have an amazing partnership with ALHI and this recognition is something we are extremely proud of as it is earned by the entire team of associates at Rosen Shingle Creek® with very passionate leadership,” said Leslie Menichini, Vice President, Sales, Rosen Hotels & Resort.

The AAA Four Diamond, 1,500-room Rosen Shingle Creek® is conveniently located at 9939 Universal Blvd., just off the International Drive tourist district and 10 minutes from the Orlando International Airport. Among the many honors the hotel has earned is Meetings & Conventions (M&C) magazine’s Gold Platter Award, a “best of the best” award which is given only to the top catering departments at convention properties across the country. To book a room, guests may call the Rosen Shingle Creek® reservations line at (866) 996-6338. For more information, visit www.rosenshinglecreek.com or call (866) 996-9939. For more information about Rosen Hotels & Resorts, visit www.rosenhotels.com.

First Ever Holiday Confection Competition in partnership with the Florida Hospital Foundation to benefit the Florida Hospital Transplant House, Opening in 2015

For more information, contact:
Robert Hubler,
407-639-4212, rhubler@RosenHotels.com

For photography, visit https://www.rosenshinglecreek.com/photoGallery.asp

ORLANDO (Oct. 2, 2014) – Orlando’s Rosen Shingle Creek® is well known for its exceptional dining and artfully crafted pastries, handmade by world renowned executive pastry chef, David Ramirez, and his team. But now, the hotel is inviting other local chefs, pastry enthusiasts and members of the hospitality community to share in the confectionary fun as it introduces the inaugural Rosen Shingle Creek® Gingerbread House Competition. The contest will benefit the new Florida Hospital Transplant House, scheduled to open in 2015.

The competition will be judged by Ramirez, former winner of the Food Network USA Pastry Challenge and former team captain for Team USA in the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie, or World Pastry Cup; members of the Florida Hospital’s Gourmet Soirée committee, Chef Emily Ellyn and Bill Sullivan; and other community leaders.

“We are thrilled to introduce this wonderful new holiday tradition to Rosen Shingle Creek®,” said Leslie Menichini, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®. “The Gingerbread House Competition not only will provide a charming holiday backdrop for our guests, but also, the proceeds will go to a very worthwhile cause, the Florida Hospital Foundation to benefit the Florida Hospital Transplant House to aid organ transplant recipients and their families.”

The gingerbread houses will be on display Dec. 1-22 at “Gingersnap Station” in the hotel’s main lobby. Judging will take place on Dec. 18 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. During the judging, competitors and guests may enjoy a Gingerbread Reception featuring complimentary light fare and a cash bar. Guests may enter to win a variety of giveaways, including hotel stays, gift certificates and other prizes.

Entries will be judged on originality, overall appearance, choice and use of materials, and difficulty of design. All gingerbread houses must be original; no kits may be used. The main components of the house, including the walls and roof, must be constructed of gingerbread and all components of the house must be edible

The deadline to register for the gingerbread competition is Oct. 15 by 5 p.m. Registration forms and a complete list of rules and acceptable gingerbread house dimensions may be found at www.rosenshinglecreek.com/holidays. All participants must attend a Gingerbread House Entry Reception the evening of Oct. 23 to review the rules of the competition. Installation of the gingerbread houses will take place between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Dec. 1. All prize money will be donated to the Florida Hospital Foundation to benefit the Florida Hospital Transplant House. For more information, prospective participants may contact Amy Leniz at ALeniz@RosenShingleCreek.com.

The Gingerbread House Competition is just one of many holiday events at Rosen Shingle Creek® this season. Gingerbread-makers-in-training can learn the tricks of the trade as Ramirez leads Gingerbread University on Dec. 13 from 11 to 12:30 p.m., as well as cookie decorating and chocolate making sessions on Dec. 20. Other festive holiday events include a Holiday Entertaining workshop with “Retro Rad” Chef Emily Ellyn; the Big Band Dinner Show Series, featuring a performance by Michael Andrew & The Atomic Big Band and A Blast from the Past Original ’50s Holiday Revue; as well as a Nutcracker Ballet Performance and Tea; performances by local choirs; and much more. A variety of specially priced accommodations packages are also available for holiday getaways. Visit www.rosenshinglecreek.com/holidays for more details.

The AAA Four Diamond, 1,501-room Rosen Shingle Creek® is conveniently located at 9939 Universal Blvd., just off the International Drive tourist district and 10 minutes from the Orlando International Airport. Among the many honors the hotel has earned is Meetings & Conventions (M&C) magazine’s Gold Platter Award, a “best of the best” award which is given only to the top catering departments at convention properties across the country. To book a room, guests may call the Rosen Shingle Creek® reservations line at (866) 996-6338. For more information, visit www.rosenshinglecreek.com or call (866) 996-9939. For more information about Rosen Hotels & Resorts®®, visit www.rosenhotels.com.

The Florida Hospital Transplant House provides a ‘Home away from Home’ for patients and their families during treatment and recovery. It will also provide opportunities for interaction with other families facing similar health challenges. For more information, visit: https://www.floridahospital.com/foundation/areas-support/case-support-transplant

Harris Rosen, founder and president of the award-winning Rosen Hotels & Resorts®, isn’t a man who thinks much about his legacy. He is too busy for that. Rosen’s time is spent envisioning new ways to help the less fortunate here in Central Florida and around the world. He is actively ensuring that the next generation of hospitality professionals takes the industry to even greater heights. At the same time, he’s busy launching the most dynamic vacation and convention hotel to open in Central Florida in years—Rosen Shingle Creek®. In truth, this new property is more than just another hotel for Rosen; it is the crowning achievement of his four distinguished decades in the hospitality industry. Just as important, it is the fulfillment of a personal dream.

“I have spent the best years of my career here in Florida,” Rosen explained. “I love every aspect of this state—the geography, the history, the people. So, for my final project, I envisioned a hotel that honored the majesty of the natural Florida frontier and reflected the spirit of the grand hotels built here at the turn of century.”

Rosen purchased this parcel of 250 glorious acres along the legendary Shingle Creek several years ago. Flourishing with native flowers and plants—including dense oaks, towering pines and majestic cypress trees—this site, Rosen felt, embodied Florida’s natural magnificence. And he knew that it would be the ideal setting for the final project in his illustrious career.

That career began in 1961 when Rosen graduated from the prestigious School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. But Rosen’s path to success began at a much earlier age.

“My first job was selling worms,” Rosen explained. “I was 8 or 9 years old, staying at a cabin in upstate New York during the summer while my father worked in the city. After a few days up there, I realized that the fishermen were anxious to fish, but didn’t want to bother with finding their own bait. So, I started catching night crawlers and selling them—three worms for a quarter. That was a lot of money back then.”

That worm business was perhaps the first glimpse of Rosen’s entrepreneurial spirit. But it wouldn’t be the last.

After college, Rosen went into the Army for three and a half years and was stationed overseas in Asia and Europe. While in Germany, Rosen was once again bitten by the business bug and found an opportunity to start a tulip business. Once again, he was a success. In fact, he earned enough money selling flowers to do a little traveling while on R & R, and it was on one of these trips that he stumbled onto his next entrepreneurial adventure.

On the beaches of Spain, Rosen began selling sun reflectors to the German tourists. He manufactured the reflectors himself and even sold advertising on the backs to makers of sunscreen. Before he headed back to his unit, Rosen had sold out of his inventory.

To Rosen, these ventures felt perfectly natural. Everything he attempted, he approached with incredible energy. And when he returned from his service, Rosen rededicated himself to the hospitality industry. He went to work with the Hilton Hotel Corporation and worked his way up to senior management, and then went into management with the Disney Company in California.

When Rosen migrated to Central Florida in the early seventies, he was ready to reclaim his entrepreneurial spirit, only this time, it wasn’t a worm business he was interested in.

In 1973, Rosen purchased a 256-room Quality Inn in Orlando on International Drive, and his company was officially underway. In Florida, Rosen was determined to set his roots, and raise the bar for the entire hotel industry. He was also excited to be a part of something bigger. He wanted to immerse himself in the community as well as his business.

Rosen recollects, “Where I grew up, in New York City’s Lower East Side, people didn’t have a lot of money. Everywhere I looked, I saw blue-collar workers. But my mom wanted more from me. I remember her saying constantly, ‘I don’t care what you are, just be the best.’” That advice pretty well sums up Rosen’s work ethic—whether he’s working on a new hotel like Rosen Shingle Creek® or on one of his philanthropic endeavors, he is headstrong and totally committed. “I know that I’ve come a long way, but I don’t feel wealthy or successful. I think it’s just my Lower East Side background. I just work hard, like my mom told me to do.”

Over the course of the last thirty years, Rosen’s company has grown from 256 rooms to more than 6,300. Today, the Rosen family of hotels, which includes the award-winning Rosen Centre® and Rosen Plaza®, and four other properties in the Orlando area, remains, unwaveringly, a standard-bearer of service, reflecting the influence of Rosen’s early positions at the Waldorf Astoria and others.

“The secret of success is no secret,” Rosen says. “You’ve got to work your ass off. You have to be obsessed.”

While the company’s newest property, the Rosen Shingle Creek®, may be the pinnacle of Rosen’s hospitality career, his legacy extends well beyond guest rooms and golf courses. To people in the hospitality community, as well as the community at large, Rosen is just as renowned and even more revered for his philanthropy and good will.

Throughout his career, Rosen has believed that his mission is not just to conduct business in the community, but also to invest in it. Toward that end, in 1993, he launched the Tangelo Park Pilot Program with the mission of fulfilling the dreams of at-risk children and their parents.

“My pledge was that every two, three and four-year-old would be able to go to preschool at no expense to their parents,” Rosen explained, “and that for every youngster in the program who was accepted to a public college in the state of Florida, we would pay his or her tuition, room, board, books and travel.”

Since its inception, the Tangelo Park program has provided more than 200 college scholarships, and high school dropout rates have gone from 25% in 1993 to just 6% in 2004.

Rosen has also donated more than $22 million to the University of Central Florida for the creation of a world-class school of hospitality management, and he has become involved in such diverse projects as “Water for Haiti,” raising funds to purchase specialized water filtration devices in order to provide fresh drinking water to one million people in Haiti and “The Bronze Statue Program” at Bethune-Cookman College. Most recently, Rosen pledged $3.5 million to build a Southwest Orlando Jewish Community Campus in Dr. Phillips. The Campus will bear the name, “The Jack and Lee Rosen Southwest Orlando Jewish Community Campus,” in honor of Mr. Rosen’s parents. As a result of his many heartfelt efforts, Harris Rosen is no longer simply a hotelier; he has become, in fact, a role model.

For more information about Rosen Shingle Creek®, call (866) 996-9939 or visit www.oldrsc.com.

Rosen Hotels & Resorts® currently owns and operates seven properties in the Orlando market. Numerous hospitality-industry awards, employee longevity and a reputation for quality have fueled the growth of Rosen Hotels & Resorts over the past 34 years. For more information about Rosen Hotels & Resorts®, visit www.rosenhotels.com.

For more information, contact: Robert Hubler
(407) 639-4212, Email: rhubler@RosenHotels.com
Photography available in our Photo Gallery