South Florida Auto Giant Rick Case Marks Major Milestone
DAVIE (CBSMiami) -- South Florida auto giant Rick Case marked another milestone Monday.
Case and his wife Rita cut the ribbon on a brand new Volkswagen dealership in Davie, billed as the world's largest.
The 328,000 square foot Volkswagen dealership is Case's fifth dealership on what's become known as the Davie-Weston auto row. It creates 200 new jobs.
Florida Governor Rick Scott who just flew back from a trip to New York was on hand for the grand opening.
"It's exciting, more jobs," beamed the Governor as he made his way into the massive showroom filled with brand new VW Jettas and Passats.
The Governor downplayed a recent Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald article which scrutinized his campaign promise to create 700,000 new jobs over seven years.
"Florida has added 406,000 jobs since January 2011, and the biggest monthly boost is the most recent. In October, the state added 44,600 jobs. To create that many jobs would require more than 20,000 jobs per month, every month for seven years. To date, Florida is averaging 12,000 jobs a month," said Scott.
"Florida is going to come nowhere near exceeding normal job growth by 700,000 in seven years, no matter how you define it or time it," said David Denslow, a retired University of Florida economist.
Scott fired back with his own editorial writing, "Unfortunately the Times' editorial added up all the jobs employers reduced over the last few years, but failed to mention the great news that we have experienced net job growth over that same time. Simply put, the full math on our state's economy is that we have added more than 440,000 new private sector jobs since we began implementing pro growth policies. This means that in less than three years we are more than half way to the 700,000 seven-year job creation goal."
The Governor praised the Case's for creating jobs and being community partners helping to raise millions of dollars for charities like the Boys and Girls Clubs.
Rick Case attributed his success to always putting the customer first.
"We are motivated to help people. For us it's about the customer."
"Rick and I do completely different things," explained Rita Case. "He's the marketing genius. I handle the business part. He's CEO while I'm COO.'
The Case's have been married 33 years and show no signs of slowing down.
Rick Case was recently named the country's top auto dealer by auto industry journal Automotive News.
