Edward Rose & Sons, a family-owned real estate development
and management business, celebrates its 100th anniversary.
Since its founding, real-estate company Edward Rose & Sons has completed more than 80,000 housing units across 15 states. General aviation has been an integral part and key competitive advantage of the Rose family and their namesake business most of its 100 years.
The family’s flying lineage first began with Edward Rose. His beginnings were not in the sky, the construction industry, or even in the United States. Born in Czarist Russia in the late 1800s, Edward immigrated to America as a teenager searching for a new life. With sights originally set on working for the high-paying Ford Motor Company ($5 per day for assembly line workers), fortune would find that he did not find work at the automobile manufacturer and instead became a carpenter. He then quickly moved into building and selling new homes, which ultimately was the foundation of the company that now bears his name a century later.
Business at the time was hard, especially after the stock market crashed and the Great Depression loomed. Even so, Edward persevered. One of his greatest achievements, he later said, would be selling a home in the early 1930s. Other achievements of his life were his marriage to his wife Lillian and raising their four sons, all of whom would work in the building business. Catching favorable winds from soldier homecomings after World War II, the company built an increasing number of quality homes for working-class families.
In the subsequent decade or so following this economic boom, Edward’s son Sheldon transitioned from single-family domicile construction to what would be one of the next real estate booms – multi-family, garden-style apartment communities.
Using his own plane, Sheldon would scout out potential land acquisitions and check in on projects under construction. Flying was a natural decision for Sheldon as he had his pilot’s license since the late 1940s when he was serving in the Coast Guard. At the outset, he trained in a Piper Cub but later transitioned to a Cessna 190 and then a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle for business purposes. His appreciation and love for aviation extended past its undeniable benefits to his business. He also often flew for pleasure and covered the contiguous United States, even dipping down in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico City and Cuba.
His welcomed copilot was son Warren, who often accompanied his father on land acquisition trips. The flying bug rubbed off on him, and he began flight training at 16, receiving his private license shortly after in 1978. In the subsequent decades, Warren worked his way up from Cessna 150s to Citation jets. Today, Warren still utilizes aviation for business and leisure purposes, whether visiting one of the company’s 130-plus apartment communities or taking his family on vacation. Warren holds the following type ratings: CE510, CE525 and CE550. He also owns a Marchetti 260 that he flies for fun and utilizes for upset and recovery training.
Recently following in the family tradition is another eager pilot – Warren’s daughter, Frances. Frances has been in and around a cockpit (starting with a Cessna 420) since she was four months old, and her positive attitude towards aviation has remained since. At age 19, she began flight training in a Diamond DA40 and later moved to the venerable Cessna 150. In 2017, she completed her undergraduate degree from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and joined the family business as a land acquisitions analyst. Frances continues to work toward her PPL in a Cirrus SR20, with the goal of completing this initial training this summer. She then plans to jump right into instrument training with multi-engine and Citation type rating work following soon after.
What is unique about her job now, compared to Sheldon’s acquisition work years ago, is technology’s game-changing effect on the industry. Frances says, “I look for land on which to build apartments as my grandfather did 50 years ago, only I use Google instead of a plane.”
Nonetheless, aviation remains an important asset. Throughout Edward Rose & Sons’ history, they have operated the following aircraft models: Cessna 421C, Cessna 425 Conquest, Beechcraft King Air 250GT, Cirrus SR20, Cirrus SR22T, Citation Bravo, Citation 510 Mustang, CitationJet, CJ2+, and CJ3+. These aircraft have been based out of Oakland County International Airport (KPTK) near Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The company also enlists the help of paid contract pilots for various flying missions.
“Some of the division heads [in Sheldon’s time] had their own aircraft,” Warren said. “While the company does not employ any pilots at the present time, the pilots that operate our aircraft are independent contractors. We currently have about six pilots under contract with Lentini Aviation for their services.”
The contracted pilots fly the company’s current fleet of three Citation CJ3+’s, one King Air 200, and one Citation Mustang to construction projects (some projects taking up to 10 years) and managed properties across the United States. They each maintain currency in more than one of these aircraft and full-time pilots log anywhere from 500 to 800 hours of flight time a year.
Kevin Altenburg has flown with the company for 12 years, starting left seat in Citation Bravo’s and flying a dozen different aircraft for Edward Rose & Sons in the years since. Chris Lentini, who owns Lentini Aviation, has flown with Rose family members since the 1970s when he would fly with Sheldon to maintain the builder’s instrument proficiency and the occasional company trip. He explains that they moved into jets in the late 1990s, which today make up most of their fleet.
“The people [is what I enjoy most],” said Chris. “Warren and I developed a strong bond early in our flying and have maintained that to this day. The quality of the people I fly has always been more important to me than the type of airplane I fly.”
Kevin agrees “the people” are what make his job enjoyable. “Whether it is a member of the family or flying a load of folks to a construction project, the people in the back make the job in my opinion. All of the people at Edward Rose treat us like valued team members and part of the family.”
Another tenured company pilot is Scott Armstrong, who has been flying company aircraft since 2011. Something which excited him about the opportunity to fly trips for Edward Rose & Sons is the ability to fly alongside CEO Warren.
“As a pilot himself, safety is paramount to Warren. On occasion, we fly together, and it’s always a pleasure to share the cockpit with a fellow airman like him. His dedication to safety coupled with his ability to communicate as a crew, his airmanship skills and his servant’s heart make him an asset in any cockpit.”