Home Building Giant Arthur Rutenberg Dies At 89

Arthur Rutenberg, the co-founder of U.S. Home and the driving force behind Arthur Rutenberg Homes, died last Wednesday at 89.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that Rutenberg built tens of thousands of homes in Florida and other states.

Rutenberg began building homes in the 1950s. While with U.S. Home in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he quintupled the size of the company before setting out on his own. In 1978 he started Arthur Rutenberg Homes, the nation's largest franchisor of custom homebuilding companies.

Today, Arthur Rutenberg Homes has 43 franchises in eight states, including three in the Tampa Bay area. The company itself has a total of about 110 employees in corporate offices in the Icot Center, Indianapolis and Charlotte, N.C.

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