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Middle Bay Homes’ parent company made the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Fast 50 again in 2023, the second year in a row. The name on the list is Building Easier® Construction Group, the Tampa-based company Middle Bay is part of. The Business Journal has a 2023 Fast 50 honoree page for Building Easier Construction Group, and our PR firm shared the announcement on June 13, 2023. Middle Bay Homes isn’t the listed honoree. It is, though, the part of the company you’d be hiring.

Twice in a row

The Fast 50 ranks companies by average annual revenue growth over 3 years, measured as a percentage. We wrote about making the 2022 list in July 2022. Showing up once can mean one strong run. Showing up again the following year is harder to call luck.

Same caveat as last time: no rank and no growth percentage here. We don’t have figures we can verify, so we’re not printing any. The list is the news, and the list is enough.

What it means if you’re building with Middle Bay

Growth isn’t the point of a custom home. A good house is. But a builder’s staying power is part of what you’re buying, whether or not it’s on the contract. The warranty, the call about a door that sticks after the first rainy season, the question you think of a year after move-in — all of it assumes the company is still there to pick up.

Growth is only good news for a homeowner if the house doesn’t feel it. On a Middle Bay build, both founders’ names and licenses are on the paperwork. Cory Frier is the qualifier. Will Daniel holds Florida residential contractor license CRC1332115. A second year on a growth list doesn’t change who signs.

Thank you, again

A second year running means a second year of people showing up. Thank you to the crews who carried the work, the trade partners who kept pace with it, and the Middle Bay clients who chose us. We’d like to think we earned the spot. You’re the reason there was anything to count.

What to do next

If you’re comparing builders, our post on how to find a contractor in Tampa Bay you can actually trust is a good place to start. If you already own land, Build On Your Lot explains how we find out what it will build before anyone draws a plan. And the About page introduces the people who sign the warranty.

Call (813) 421-9932.

Middle Bay Homes, CGC1539414, CCC1337297, CRC1332115.

Middle Bay Homes co-founder Will Daniel was named to the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class of 2022. The Business Journal published his profile on October 17, 2022, under the headline Meet William Daniel, a 2022 40 Under 40 honoree. They went formal with William. We’ll stick with Will.

Will co-founded Middle Bay with Cory Frier, and Middle Bay Homes is part of Building Easier® Construction Group, the Tampa-based parent company he and Cory co-founded. To be clear about whose honor this is: it’s Will’s, personally. It isn’t an award to Middle Bay Homes, and we won’t dress it up as one. But the person on the list is one of the founders whose names and licenses go on every Middle Bay build, so it seemed worth a few words here.

What the list is

The name tells you the age cutoff, and the Business Journal picks the class. We haven’t seen its judging criteria or the full list of honorees, so we won’t guess at either in print. What we can say is simpler: a regional business paper looked across Tampa Bay in 2022 and put Will’s name in that year’s class.

Why the people behind a builder matter to you

An honor for a founder isn’t a warranty, and it isn’t a reason on its own to hire anyone. But choosing a custom builder is mostly choosing people. You work with them through design, permitting and construction, and you rely on them after the keys change hands.

On a Middle Bay build, those people have names. Cory Frier is the licensed qualifier, holding Florida’s Certified General Contractor and Certified Roofing Contractor licenses. Will holds Florida residential contractor license CRC1332115, and he spent 9 years at James Hardie, the fiber cement siding manufacturer. His work centers on the siding, roofing and window systems that keep Gulf Coast wind, water and sun out of a house.

Credit where it’s owed

Nobody lands on a list like this by themselves. The work behind it belongs to the crews on our job sites, the trade partners who fit our schedules into theirs, the office team that keeps every job on its calendar, and the Middle Bay clients who handed us a lot and a set of strong opinions about finishes. Thank you. The trust is the part we don’t take lightly.

More from 2022

It was a good year to be reading the Business Journal. In July, Middle Bay’s parent company made the Business Journal’s Fast 50.

Update: In 2026, Will took part in Habitat for Humanity Tampa Bay Gulfside’s 2026 CEO Build, and Middle Bay donated siding to Habitat’s builds. Read about the 2026 CEO Build.

What to do next

If you’re choosing a builder, start by meeting the people. The About page introduces both founders, and New Homes shows what the team builds. When you’re ready to talk about a lot or a plan, call (813) 421-9932.

Middle Bay Homes, CGC1539414, CCC1337297, CRC1332115.

Middle Bay Homes’ parent company made the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Fast 50 for 2022. The name on the list is Building Easier® Construction Group, the Tampa-based company Middle Bay is part of, and the Business Journal posted its 2022 Fast 50 page for Building Easier Construction Group on July 18, 2022. Middle Bay Homes isn’t the listed honoree, and we won’t pretend otherwise. But if you’re building with Middle Bay, the company behind your builder just got an outside look, and that’s worth a few words.

What the Fast 50 measures

Growth. The name gives that much away. It ranks companies by average annual revenue growth over 3 years, measured as a percentage. It isn’t a design award, and it isn’t a customer survey.

You’ll notice there’s no rank or percentage in this post. We don’t have a figure here we can stand behind, and a number nobody can check has no business on this site. Being on the list is the news.

What it means if you’re building with Middle Bay

Growth on its own isn’t a reason to hire a builder. A company can grow faster than its crews, and the house is where that shows. What growth does suggest is simpler: people kept hiring the company, and it kept its footing while they did.

That matters more in custom building than most people expect. A builder’s warranty is a promise about the future, and it’s only as good as the company still standing behind it when you call. Choosing a builder is partly a bet that they’ll be around to answer the phone. A list like this doesn’t settle that bet, but it’s an outside read on it.

And the growth runs on people, not on a spreadsheet. On every Middle Bay build, both founders are on the paperwork: Cory Frier, the licensed qualifier, and Will Daniel, who holds Florida residential contractor license CRC1332115. Getting bigger doesn’t change whose names are on the house.

Thank you

A revenue line is a lagging indicator of a lot of early mornings. Thank you to the crews who did the work, and to the trade partners who took our calls and worked our schedules into theirs. And thank you to the Middle Bay clients who trusted us with their lot, their drawings and a long list of decisions about finishes. This list measures your trust as much as anything we did.

Update: Middle Bay’s parent company made the Fast 50 again the following year. Read about the 2023 list.

What to do next

If you’re weighing builders, start with our post on how to find a contractor in Tampa Bay you can actually trust. Then meet the people behind the work on our About page, or see what we build on New Homes.

When you’re ready to talk about a lot or a plan, call (813) 421-9932.

Middle Bay Homes, CGC1539414, CCC1337297, CRC1332115.