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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 15 M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 2 0 Visit Patrons.com to find an independent Maine agent near you. Business Property and Liability Insurance Products Cyber and Data Breach Liability Insurance Employment Practices Liability Insurance, EPLI & Equipment and Mechanical Breakdown I N S U R I N G M A I N E B U S I N E S S — I N S U R I N G M A I N E P E O P L E Innovative solutions for today's business challenges. We've been in business more than 140 years, and continue to innovate by providing you a portfolio that offers the kind of protection your business needs — today. Navigating between today's retirement landscape can be complex. As a leader in retirement planning, Ameriprise Financial can help. It starts with a one-on-one conversation to understand your personal goals. From there, I'll work with you to develop a clear retirement roadmap to help you retire on your terms. The Confident Retirement approach is not a guarantee of future financial results. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER TM and CFP (with flame design) in the U.S. Investment Advisory products and services are made available through Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., a registered investment advisor. C 2020 Ameriprise Financial Inc. All rights reserved. Take the guesswork out of your retirement plan. John Hughes, CFP®, ChFC®, RICP® Private Wealth Advisor 207.883.4434 Call me today to get started. 5 Ward Street Scarborough, ME 04074 john.x.hughes@ampf.com johnxhughes.com CA Insurance #0G04816 Roccy's road and 'heck of a team' Building a family business — and a new community — in Scarborough B Y R E N E E C O R D E S R occy Risbara has been in con- struction his whole life, helping his dad with projects for the family business and even driving a bull- dozer at age 10. "I really cannot imagine what else I'd be doing, it was just never anything I'd thought about," says Risbara, partner and president of Risbara Bros. Construction Co. in Scarborough. The company, owned by Risbara and younger brothers Bill and Marc since 1990, has roots going back to 1968, when their parents, Marcia and Rocco Risbara II, founded the business. "They were just a couple of young kids," says Risbara. "They had a quest for a better life and wanted to try to control their destiny as best they could. My broth- ers and I literally grew up in the business." They've been working together ever since, running the construction company that's grown to 47 employees, and a hand- ful of related co-owned ventures, includ- ing the developer of The Downs mixed- use community in Scarborough. Besides construction, they do remodeling, repairs and property management — overseeing a combined 138 employees and still a model of teamwork. "The fact that we all actually work is a piece of it," says Risbara. "That's some- thing my brothers and I learned at a pretty young age. Bill, Marc and I recognized that if you act like the boss's son, you get no respect. You have to go out there and do more than your share. That's the way we've always operated. We work hard, but we also have a lot of fun." Risbara Bros. Construction, which has built thousands of homes and apart- ments in the greater Portland area, does commercial, residential and earthwork construction. In the past decade and a half, it's also built around 40 bank and credit union branches. Clients include the Scarborough-based Town & Country Federal Credit Union, a 40,000-member entity for which it's done new builds and remodeled leased branches. "They're very knowledgeable, very responsive and very good at interpreting the needs of the client. They can speed up and slow down at a moment's notice," says Town & Country President and CEO David Libby, who reconnected with the Risbaras years after going to high school with Bill. From a business perspective, Libby says he values the family's com- mitment to quality and long-term relation- ships with all their clients as "unique in today's world." Reshaping Scarborough For the Risbaras, their biggest under- taking to date is a work in progress that's put them on the map as major developers, The Downs in Scarborough. "My ability to fly under the radar is gone," admits Risbara. For the project, the Risbaras teamed up with long-time business partners Peter and Richard Michaud—another set of brothers — to form Crossroads Holdings LLC in 2017. They paid $6.7 million for 525 long-empty acres they aim to turn into a so-called live-work-play community expected to deliver $1 billion in economic value over a 30-year horizon. While all five are equal partners, each has a distinct role, with Roccy Risbara at the helm and the project's public face. "Together we're a heck of a team," he says, likening The Downs to a puzzle that's beginning to fall into place. "We've got activity on both ends of the site, and now we're working on the middle. It's a big jigsaw puzzle, but it's really starting to come together." The pace is much faster than expected, with dozens of apartments, condos and homes already built, industrial lots under construction and WEX Inc. signed on for a planned $50 million operations center near the Scarborough Downs harness- racing track and grandstand. The site will also include a town center and 10 miles of new trails — creating a new anchor, and economic engine, for the 20,000-popula- tion town. As the general contractor for The Downs, Risbara Bros. Construction will play a key role. "This piece of Scarborough is going to be the profit center for the town," Risbara says, "and it's going to more than carry its weight in terms of revenue versus demand for service. The town is going to grow, so we're going to build it out in a manner that's sustainable for the town." Scarborough Town Manager Tom Hall is confident of that happening, given that

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