Carol Kolozs Fischer, whose second act in life was to cement Mérida’s reputation for luxury, died on June 17 after a private battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 77.
News of his passing started circulating more than a week after his death in Miami.
Carol’s business dealings were broad, but he was best known for a project he began at 60: restoring and joining two long-abandoned mansions and creating Rosas & Xocolate. The pink boutique hotel/restaurant/spa was fairly pioneering at the time, but today, we see his clarity of vision.
He wisely partnered with the architectural firm Reyes Ríos + Larrain, previously known for updating abandoned haciendas in the countryside, to lead the restoration on Mérida’s grand boulevard, the Paseo de Montejo.
After about three years of work, the hotel opened in 2009 to great fanfare, quickly becoming a fixture on the Paseo.
And it photographed beautifully. Today, you’d call it Instagrammable, but back then, it was striking enough to be quickly featured in major media outlets, bringing attention to Mérida’s growing cachet as a fashionable destination.
A free spirit
Carol Kolozs was born in 1946 to a Romanian mother and a Czech father in Mexico City. By the time he was 9, the family had moved to a kibbutz in Israel. After his bar mitzvah, they moved to New York, where he became a teenage Brooklynite at the dawn of the 1960s.
Later, he joined an elite US paratrooper unit to fight in Vietnam. He had said that of all his accomplishments, he was most proud of his military service.
“I survived,” Carol told a reporter on his 70th birthday, which was celebrated with a 007-themed bash, playing on his resemblance to Sean Connery. “Now I look for a way to contribute and create; we have to appreciate the opportunities that God gives.”
Carol first visited Mérida in the 1960s, after returning from Vietnam, when one of his sisters married a Yucatecan. Upon returning in 2002, he noticed that Paseo de Montejo and its mansions had deteriorated. So he acquired two abandoned neighboring mansions on the Paseo at Calle 41 with the idea of starting a revival of the area.
“I bought them without knowing what they would be used for, but then I found the need to build the hotel,” he said.
It was a watershed for investments on and around Paseo de Montejo.
Carol was the ultimate entrepreneur. He ran everything from a car business to an athletic footwear company. In 1989, he established the Italian athletic brand Lotto in Mexico through a Chinese joint venture, and in 1995, he was named Mexican Industrialist of the Year.
Earlier: Kolozs Has Tough Words for Some Neighbors on the Paseo
When he sold Lotto after 24 years, he began his most famous project. The name Rosas & Xocolate refers first to his mother, Rozsi, and then to the cacao bean that the Maya once used as currency.
“Together, they inspire romance,” he once said.
It started with 17 luxurious rooms, a spa and, at the time, the best restaurant on the Paseo. It was a calculated gamble. Luxury boutique hotels were uncommon in Mérida at the time, but this hotel set a trend that continues today.
A legacy
Like Rosas and Xocolate, Carol Kolozs was charming and handsome. He managed to be both a tough businessman and a loyal friend, even with those he disagreed with, as evidenced by the tributes flooding social media since news of his death broke.
“Carol was not only a distinguished and visionary entrepreneur who pioneered the revival of Mérida’s hospitality, restoration and tourism business, but he was also a father and friend to all of us, filled with compassion, dedication, and humanity,” says Karina Medina, general manager of Grupo Rosas, which Kolozs established to run his hospitality enterprises, which also include Maya de Asia and Lagos Taverna Griega in Mérida’s north.
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“Carol was always involved, and he devoted himself to a city he truly believed in, working tirelessly for the economic and cultural development of Mérida,” she continues.
He was a member of Mérida’s Chamber of Commerce and served on the board of directors of Banorte, Vice President of Tourism at CANACO and founder of the Board of Trustees of Paseo de Montejo.
At 70, Carol had spoken about leaving a lasting impact on the world.
“I am motivated to leave something to the city,” he told a newspaper reporter. “For me, money is not as important as leaving a legacy.”
Carol Kolozs was given a private military funeral service in Florida. A memorial service in Mérida is planned.
