2024 Business of the Year - Freeman Building Systems

Dan Freeman

President,

Freeman Building Systems

Congratulations to Freeman Building Systems on being named the 2024 Business of the Year Award recipient!

When the president of the Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce called Dan Freeman, President of Freeman Building Systems, to arrange a meeting, he expected it might be fundraising-related.

The Wooster-based design-build firm had been growing. It moved into new offices on Venture Boulevard in November. The company had been sponsoring more Chamber events, like the Wayne Economic Forum. So, Freeman was looking forward to discovering the next opportunity.

When Chamber President Samira Zimmerly and Board Chair Michael McClintock arrived, Freeman was stunned to learn the true nature of the visit: The company he founded in 1992 is the 2024 Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year.

“I didn’t even think we were in the arena,” Freeman said. When they said “business of the year,” he figured it was in the Small Business of the Year category. They assured him it was not.

“I’m humbled. I didn’t even think we were in that game,” said Freeman, who served on the Chamber’s board in the early 2000s.

“Our community has benefitted from Freeman Building Systems’ dedication, investment, and partnership in building up Wooster and beyond,” Samira Zimmerly, president of the Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce said. “We are proud to recognize Freeman Building Systems as the 2024 Business of the Year.”

The recognition has been more than 30 years in the making since a young Freeman departed the company his family founded and operated to make his mark in the world.

His grandfather, Howard Z. Freeman, and great uncle, Bob Freeman, started Freeman Construction Company in 1946. The company would later come to be owned by his father, Howard R. Freeman, uncle, Michael Freeman, and Harry Johnson. After the death of his uncle, his father bought out the remaining partner.

Freeman Construction Company had been a part of Freeman’s summers. During breaks from college, he would work on job sites. After he graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a civil engineering degree in 1977, he went to Arizona State University for his MBA.

After Freeman earned his master’s degree, he found himself in Columbus, so he stopped by the civil engineering program at The Ohio State University to see what kind of jobs were posted. He met the chairman of the construction management program, Richard E. Larew, Ph.D. The two talked, and Larew offered Freeman a fellowship in construction management, a graduate-level program.

“He was a man ahead of his time,” Freeman said. “In the 1960s and 1970s, he was doing design-build work. He was about 10 to 20 years ahead of the times.”

The family’s construction company was a traditional one that would build based on architectural drawings designed by someone else. When Freeman launched FBS, he opted for the design/build model, in which he would work with private clients doing both the design and the construction and focused on the private market instead of public works projects.

Freeman Building Systems worked on one project when it launched in 1992, and that was fine, Freeman said. The company was small, and it was enough.

FBS partnered with Butler Manufacturing, a manufacturer of pre-engineered steel buildings, and became a Butler Builder.

“The first two or three years were kind of scary,” Freeman said. “It was a new company with no track record. It was challenging.”

But, in addition to building a business, Freeman has built a good team around him. His father had built a number of warehouses for Rubbermaid around the country, and he worked on them. So, Freeman started building warehouses.

It wasn’t until around 1999-2000 that Freeman felt FBS was gaining traction. After he finished a second warehouse for D+S Distribution, he got a call from Jerry Baker, who wanted a 150,000-square-foot warehouse built in Ashland. FBS has since built 2.5 million square feet of warehousing space for Baker’s companies.

FBS recently completed its largest project: 608,000 square feet of manufacturing, distribution, and warehousing space for the Wooster Brush Co.

In addition to the work for Wooster Brush, D+S, and Baker, some other notable projects include Akron Brass, the Schaeffler Group/ LuK, Jarrett Logistics, and the Aspen Racquet Club, which was the U.S. Tennis Association’s Facility of the Year in 2018. It was designed by Craig Sanders.

Freeman attributes the success of Freeman Building Systems and its Business of the Year recognition to the people who have helped build and support the company. Today, Sanders, Michael Burns, and A.J. Lammers are part of the company’s Entrepreneurial Operating System leadership group.

“In addition to the people at FBS, a lot of people along the way have helped us get where we are today,” Freeman said.