By Brian Bandell and Emon Reiser  –  South Florida Business Journal

80. Wayne Huizenga, the South Florida business legend known for building three Fortune 500 companies and leading the region's major sports teams, has died at age 80.

He had been battling cancer, and was unable to participate in a Florida Panthers ceremony in January to retire No. 37 in his honor, though he watched from a suite.

Huizenga was the ultimate entrepreneur, known for founding Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation Inc. (NYSE: AN), currently the largest automotive retailer in the U.S., and Waste Management Inc., which grew into one of the largest waste-disposal companies in the country. He also led Blockbuster during a rapid growth phase.

He brought hockey and baseball to South Florida as the inaugural owner of the Florida Panthers and the then-Florida Marlins, which won a World Series under his ownership in 1997. Huizenga started the hockey team in Miami in 1993, made the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996 and moved the team to a new arena (now known as the BB&T Center) in Sunrise in 1998. He later sold both franchises.

He also owned the Miami Dolphins, purchasing a minority stake in the team from Joe Robbie in 1990 before buying out the remaining shares in 1993. Huizenga oversaw the final years of Dolphins legends Dan Marino and Don Shula before selling majority ownership of the team to current owner Stephen M. Ross for $1.1 billion in 2009. The Dolphins' stadium hosted three Super Bowls during Huizenga's ownership tenure.

Beyond sports, thousands of people who worked for Huizenga will remember him as a hard-working, entrepreneurial and charitable boss. Many of the office buildings in downtown Fort Lauderdale were built because Huizenga based his companies there, literally bringing life to the city's urban core.

His death brought an outpouring of condolences as those whose lives he touched reflected on the breadth of his impact.

"Wayne was one-of-a-kind, whose business success is unmatched and might never be repeated,'' AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson said. "Wayne was one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the history of business, leaving a lasting mark in sports, community and business. His legacy burns brighter than anyone.''

AutoNation CEO remembers Wayne Huizenga from CNBC.

Florida Panthers owner Vincent Viola said the team is "heartbroken'' by his death.

"Mr. Huizenga's lifelong commitment to our community, his philanthropy and his entrepreneurial spirit ensure that the Huizenga family legacy will live on in South Florida,'' Viola said. 

The Business Journal honored Huizenga with its first Business of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012, and its Business of the Year startup award is named after him. Huizenga received Ernst & Young's World Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2009.

Born in Chicago, Huizenga moved to South Florida as a teenager. He briefly attended Calvin College in Michigan before dropping out to find work. He drove a truck and worked at a gas station before briefly serving in the Army.

In a conversation at the Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University, available on YouTube, he talked about how he started in business.

He said he had just gotten out of the Army, when his father asked him to go to lunch to talk about the future. By chance, they ran into a high school classmate of his father, who was in town looking for a manager to run his three-truck sanitation business in Pompano Beach.

“He said to me, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, 'I just got out of the Army yesterday.' He said, ‘Good, you’re my new manager.’’’

Huizenga said he resisted at first, because “the last thing I wanted to do was be in the garbage-collection business.’’

But he agreed to try it out for three weeks, and eventually became “fascinated” with the business. When he spotted an ad in the newspaper for a garbage route earning revenue of $500 a month, Huizenga told the owner he wanted to buy the route – but didn’t have any money. The owner agreed to a loan.

“It was my first leveraged buyout,’’ Huizenga recalled.

With a $5,000 loan from his father, Huizenga started Southern Sanitation Service in Fort Lauderdale in 1962, and even drove the garbage trucks himself for a time, starting a route at 2 a.m.

In 1968, Huizenga co-founded Waste Management in Fort Lauderdale to consolidate an industry that was largely fragmented. The company launched a rapid string of over 150 acquisitions and went public in 1973. It went on to become the largest waste disposal company in the U.S. before Huizenga left the company in 1984.

In 1987, Huizenga acquired a few Blockbuster Video stores and quickly expanded the brand nationwide. By 1991, Blockbuster had over 1,600 stores and was a household name.

Huizenga sold Blockbuster to Viacom for $8.4 billion in 1994 – exiting the video rental industry a decade before services like Netflix made it obsolete.

The businessman followed that up in 1995 with a deal that appeared to return him to the waste industry, but led to something else entirely. He raised $232 million to buy Republic Services, a waste hauler. He soon refocused the business and started acquiring auto dealerships. The company opened 12 AutoNation USA used car superstores in 1996. By 1998, the waste division of Republic Services was spun off into a separate company, and Republic Services changed its name to AutoNation.

Huizenga led the Republic Services waste hauling company until 2002, helping it become the third-largest waste management company.

Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation went on to become the largest car dealership in the U.S. and the largest public company in Broward County. Under Huizenga, AutoNation purchased dozens of dealerships, plus rental agencies Alamo Rent-a-Car and National Car Rental in 1996 and 1997, respectively. AutoNation spun off the car rental business in 1999. Huizenga left AutoNation's board in 2004.

Real estate and hospitality were also a huge part of Huizenga's business successes. In 1995, he raised $56 million and co-founded Extended Stay America to launch a chain of extended-stay hotels across the U.S. It launched an IPO later that year, when it had only two hotels under development. With investors focused on Huizenga's strong track records, Extended Stay America shares opened trading at $13 and surged to $27.50 by the end of the first day. Just two years later, the company had 185 hotels open and 84 under construction.

Though Huizenga sold his shares years ago, Extended Stay America remains a public company and now has about 625 hotels.

Huizenga also once owned many prominent South Florida properties such as the Boca Raton Resort & Club, the Pier Sixty-Six Hotel & Marina in Fort Lauderdale, the Rybovich marina in West Palm Beach, the Bahia Mar hotel in Fort Lauderdale, and many golf courses across the Southeast. In 2004, Huizenga's Boca Resorts sold its hospitality properties to Blackstone for $1.25 billion.

One of his more recent attempts to roll up small businesses into a national service provider didn't turn out well. He bought Swisher Hygiene in 2004 to acquire commercial cleaning firms. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company went public in 2010, but its shares sagged amid accounting problems. In 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Swisher and three former executives of filing "fraudulent" financial statements. Huizenga, who had left Swisher's board in 2013, was not charged with wrongdoing. Swisher sold its assets to Ecolab at a discount in 2015.

Huizenga left both joyous and painful memories for sports fans. A year after the Marlins won the World Series, Huizenga dismantled the team by trading away the core players and slashing payroll, citing the team's deep losses. He sold the Marlins in 1999 while keeping their lease on the stadium in place. Citing the financial difficulties the team faced under that lease, the Marlins sought public funding for their new ballpark in Miami. The Marlins have remained near the bottom of MLB in attendance.

As philanthropists, Huizenga and his late wife, Marti, generously supported organizations such as Nova Southeastern University, Holy Cross Hospital, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Pine Crest School, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County, the Humane Society of Broward County, the Florida Council of Economic Education, and the Salvation Army of Broward County.

Huizenga is survived by his four children – Wayne Jr., Ray, Scott and Pam – plus 11 grandchildren.

He will be buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale. A memorial service will be held at the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Performing Arts Center at 10 a.m. March 29. In lieu of flowers, the Miami Dolphins requests that donations are made to the Cleveland Clinic of Florida Maroone Cancer Center, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County, Junior Achievement of South Florida and.or the Nova Southeastern University H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship Scholarship fund.

 

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