Re: Ashley and J.P - General Media Discussion - Thread #4

[Love_Me]

Thanks, Love_Me! I guess it could go in a general Bachelor/ette area that's not tied to any particular contestant or season. Or maybe where we talk about all the past contestants/couples?

Here is the new thread I made. Help me come up with a better thread title though. Mine was too generic for a thread about Elan's tweets.

http://bachandbachettefans.forumotion.com/t629-bachelor-producer-tweets-discussion#131097

[Archer23]

Awesome article about JP from the New York Observer.

JP Rosenbaum: Construction Manager By Day, Bachelorette Winner By Night
By Daniel Edward Rosen



Want to vet JP Rosenbaum as the construction manager for your next development?

All one has to do is ask the housewives, teenagers, bloggers, reality TV fiends, and just about anyone who’s stood near a magazine rack while waiting in a grocery line, and they will uniformly say that he is the “cute and sweet” chap who swept Ashley Hebert—the titular character in last year’s version of ABC’s The Bachelorette—off her dainty feet.

Of course, such a vetting may lead developers to lock up their wives and daughters far away from the reality Romeo. But Mr. Rosenbaum, a Long Island native who was raised in a real estate family, is not just America’s most famous fiancé. He may also be America’s most famous construction manager.

“If there was any dirt on me to be had, you would have seen it,” said the 34-year-old Mr. Rosenbaum.

Sitting inside the offices of the J Companies, where he has worked as a construction manager for five years, it appeared that it was indeed back to work for the good-natured and well-dressed Mr. Rosenbaum. And what started out as a lark—he tried out for The Bachelorette after a friend submitted his name on an online application—turned out to be a life-changer for him, he said.

“I always thought I would go away for two weeks, have a vacation, come back, and it would be forgotten about,” he said, a smile growing across his face. “And I came back with a fiancée.”

He also came back with all the attendant hoopla that accompanies on-air betrothals.

The frenzy surrounding his upcoming wedding to Ms. Hebert is still whirring, thanks to People and InTouch magazine coverage (“Ashley and JP’s Dream Wedding!”)

But months have passed since the final episode of the seventh season of The Bachelorette, when Mr. Rosenbaum beat out winemaker Ben Flajnik for Ms. Hebert’s hand, perhaps proving to America’s single ladies that real estate men are made out of sturdier stuff.

Back on Mr. Rosenbaum’s mind, other than his bride-to-be, is the Gallery at Westbury Plaza, a 330,000-square-foot retail development in Nassau County that has already leased out space to Trader Joe’s, Shake Shack and Saks Off Fifth. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012.

Before he became a reality TV staple, he had been working on the development, which is on the site of the old Avis rental car headquarters and is owned by Equity One, a Miami-based real estate investment trust. The site had five buildings that were abated of asbestos and demolished, and with construction not set to start until summer of 2011, Mr. Rosenbaum had the perfect window to try out for The Bachelorette.

There were no guarantees that he would return to a job with Equity One, or with the J Companies.

“That project was probably our biggest at the moment, and had the developer said, ‘We’re doing fine without you,’” he said, “I don’t know if I would have been hired back here or not.”

“[If] I was to bet, I would say they were going to hire me back. But it was still a risk.”

Mr. Rosenbaum, whose father was a developer and landlord, first went into real estate after college. He worked as a commercial real estate broker at Insignia/ESG’s office in Syosset, grew disillusioned with the business and shifted to online advertising. After three years, he realized his real estate roots were too hard to ignore.

He quit his job, traveled to Australia for two months, returned to the country and got his master’s in construction management at NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate in the night, while working for his father and brother’s real estate business during the day.

After finishing his master’s, one of his professors, Chuck Olivieri, also a senior vice president at Edward J. Minskoff Equities, put him in touch with Allan and David Brot, the fraternal co-owners of the J Companies.

The Brot brothers were impressed with the young Mr. Rosenbaum. But to get him, they had to do their own bit of Bachelorette-esque wooing.

“We interviewed maybe three times, offered him a job,” said Allan Brot. “He said maybe. We took him out for dinner, he said maybe. We took him out for [another] dinner, he said yes.”

Mr. Rosenbaum quickly went to work, taking part in construction projects like Forest City Ratner’s 80 DeKalb and Savanna Partners’ 141 Fifth Avenue.

He also suffered his own construction heartbreak in the form of 71 Laight Street, working on the preconstruction of the Morris Adjmi-designed building that was prematurely halted.

“It was an unbelievable design by Morris Adjmi that we were really, really, looking forward to building but never happened,” he said. The site of the development is currently up for sale.

Construction glories and heartbreaks aside, one truth is certain: the J Companies have the most recognizable face in construction in their team. Young girls recognize him and Ashley as they walk out in public. Grown women visiting the J Companies’ office ask him to sign their InTouch magazines. But construction workers?

“There weren’t many people in the construction trailer at the Gallery that read the magazines,” he said.

The crazy globetrotting dates are no more. Now Ashley and JP are an everyday, happily-soon-to-be-married couple. Ashley has finished her studies at UPenn Dental School and is awaiting word from a few pediatric dental residencies. JP is hard at work for the J Companies. Just your everyday couple who met in highly unusual (and highly public) circumstances.

Whereas his love life is looking rosy, his outlook on the current state of the city’s construction industry is not as glowing.

“In my opinion, it still seems kind of flat,” he said. “We don’t see anything really getting built this year.”

He says he has heard of rumblings from other architectural and engineering firms that they are starting to get new business, which is always welcome news to the J Companies’ ears.

“Hopefully after they get busier, we’ll get busier,” he added. But he tempered his high hopes with a sobering observation. “This year still seems kind of flat. It really does.”

When asked on whether the exposure from The Bachelorette would help or hurt his professional credibility, he thought about his answer carefully.

“That’s a good question. I don’t … I don’t think it has an impact one way or another,” he said.

“Once you get past speaking about it, and then knowing whoever you’re speaking to knows that you were on the show, it really boils down to what you know about the industry, what you know about construction, your referrals,” he added. “I don’t think it impacts it.”

“I mean, I hope it doesn’t.”

drosen@observer.com

http://www.observer.com/2012/01/jp-rosenbaum-construction-manager-by-day-bachelorette-winner-by-night/?show=all

[Eagle Eye]

What a great find, Archer! Thanks for posting!

I love that JP is such a smartie and so successful. He and Ashley are the cutest power couple ever. :Grin:

[MissLittle]

Thanks for posting the article, Archer. That was a nice read.

[Guest]

Love the article and the picture. I enlarged it and he so gorgeous. He's a confident guy, yet he's humble too, which is a hard combo, but he has it all, and so classy.

[atem]

Thanks for the article! JP looks mighty fine in that pic! :awesome:

[Guest]

Thanks for the article! JP looks mighty fine in that pic! :awesome:

ummm, yeah, how would you like that to walk in your door evernight from work. And then fix you some dinner.

[Pattycake92]

What a freakin hottie! Ash is one lucky girl and she knows it!

[Archer23]

What a freakin hottie! Ash is one lucky girl and she knows it!

Yep. :Nod: I love that she retweeted the article. And my favorite thing about the article is his boss talking about how they had to chase him to get him to accept the offer. He didn't play nearly so hard to get with Ashley.

[Alanna]

What a freakin hottie! Ash is one lucky girl and she knows it!

Yep. :Nod: I love that she retweeted the article. And my favorite thing about the article is his boss talking about how they had to chase him to get him to accept the offer. He didn't play nearly so hard to get with Ashley.

LOL. No, he didn't! :tackle:

This was such a great article and JP is really the best dressed man. I also liked the part that he thought it would be a two week vacay as Ashley says, and instead he came home with Ashley. :cc3: It reminds me of my favorite part of the finale where they're walking on the beach and JP says he was thinking WTF! when Ashley was giving her speech at the first RC and said her husband is in the room. :giveheart: :nuzzle:

[ironcat]

It reminds me of my favorite part of the finale where they're walking on the beach and JP says he was thinking WTF! when Ashley was giving her speech at the first RC and said her husband is in the room. :giveheart: :nuzzle:

Don't forget the rest of it. Ashley laughing, "And it's you!!" JP solemnly reflecting, "And it's me." Me swooning. Best. Ending. Ever.

[Guest]

It reminds me of my favorite part of the finale where they're walking on the beach and JP says he was thinking WTF! when Ashley was giving her speech at the first RC and said her husband is in the room. :giveheart: :nuzzle:

Don't forget the rest of it. Ashley laughing, "And it's you!!" JP solemnly reflecting, "And it's me." Me swooning. Best. Ending. Ever.

Oh, I so agree, I watch it whenever I can. Best part, too, they forgot they still had hot mics on and the world heard it. So cute, the way they were walking along, talking and laughing. Almost as cute as Ashley's
'"It was your sweet dance moves, babe" (while gyrating in front of him) and JP smiling, said "that was you doing all that". :giggle:

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