Rosenbaum-Hebert's wedding plans

Among the viewers tonight when the Ben Flajnik "Bachelor" premieres will be Roslyn-reared construction manager J.P Rosenbaum, the romantic rival who won bachelorette Ashley Hebert after she turned down Flajnik's proposal.

"We're definitely going to watch it," Rosenbaum, 34, told Newsday. He and Flajnik, he says, "were friends during our season, and I know he's going to make a great 'bachelor.' Ben's a great, down-to-earth guy . . . and I'm hoping he finds love. He really is a good guy -- it's why we both were there to the end," he says. "I think she saw similar qualities in us."

As for fiancee Hebert, she graduated in September from dental school in Philadelphia, but Rosenbaum says getting the clinical hours she needed to complete her degree "took longer than anticipated." And while they moved in together in October -- with Hebert super-commuting from Manhattan to Philadelphia -- they haven't started working on wedding plans yet, he says. "We always said once she's done with school and the new year starts, we'd start planning. I think come January, February we'll sit down and start talking about when and where."

Meanwhile, Rosenbaum is involved in the construction of developer Equity One's The Gallery at Westbury Plaza, going up on Old Country Road east of Meadowbrook Parkway. "They're putting up almost 400,000 square feet of retail," he says. "It'll be open by Labor Day."