ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Bradenton-based Ross Built Custom Homes was featured in the August issue of Southern Living magazine as the winner of the 2025 Southern Living Custom Builder Program Member of the Year Award.
The description below the headline for the one-page sponsored content story says, “Ross Built is awarded the 2025 Southern Living Custom Builder Program Member of the Year Award for excellence in design, construction and industry professionalism.”
Ross Built owners Greg and Lee Ross received the award at the annual Southern Living Home Summit held Feb. 3-7 in Fairhope, Alabama.
“That’s when we found out we won. It was a surprise and a huge honor,” Lee Ross said on Aug. 14. “This was the article announcing it. It’s in Publix now.”
On Feb. 15, Greg passed away unexpectedly due to an undiagnosed heart condition, leaving Lee and their sons, Jake and Andrew, to carry on the Ross Built legacy.
“It’s bittersweet. We got the award about two weeks before Greg passed,” Ross said. “We felt like the king and queen of the prom that night. We were so happy, humbled and excited. We were walking around that night and people were coming up and congratulating us. We went back to our room and giggled and thought: ‘Wow, how did this happen and how did we come from two people on a breakfast table drawing plans and having a dream to being where we are now?”
Ross Built is a member of the Southern Living Custom Builder Program that features a small number of builders selected from 16 Southeastern states.
“You become a member of this group and get connected with companies like Pella windows, Sherman Williams, Kohler, Clopay, architects and others and become industry partners with them,” Ross said. “It keeps us on the cutting edge of all the new materials being released by some of the top vendors in the world. We get high level education from the industry partners and Southern Living gets homes to feature in their magazine. Southern Living is all about a southern lifestyle and our homes, our product, our vibe and the body of our work represents the southern lifestyle.”
The photos in the award announcement feature the Ross Built home on Jewfish Key that was completed in late 2024, but the award is for the company’s overall body of work. The Jewfish Key home was also featured in two previous Southern Living stories in January (and also in The Sun).
“For a little company that was homegrown on Anna Maria Island to be so present in the national spotlight is thrilling,” Ross said. “It helps build and solidify our brand so people know we’re at the highest caliber of builders.”
