Mainebiz

V O L . X X X I N O. V M A R C H 1 0 , 2 0 2 5 6 The city of Portland announced that it hired WSP USA Inc., a national en- gineering and professional services consulting firm, to conduct the final planning phase for its Reimagining Franklin Street effort. Partners Bank in Sanford donated $10,000 to the Make-A-Wish Maine's Share the Power of a Wish Telethon. United Insurance in Portland opened an office at 59 State St. in Newburyport, Mass. The firm also formed a surety team to assist contractors with con- tracts and commercial bonds. The Maine Bankers Association in Westbrook awarded six Higher Education Assistance Foundation schol- arships totaling $12,000 to students majoring in business administration and management, finance, manage- ment and small business management at Maine colleges and universities. MaineGeneral Medical Center's Peter Alfond Prevention & Healthy Living Center in Augusta was awarded a one- year, $25,000 grant from the Avangrid Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Central Maine Power's parent company Avangrid, to support its Community Health and Hunger Program and its healthy cooking and eating classes. The University of Maine at Farmington, in partnership with Maine's four-season outdoor recreation industry, created the Western Maine Outdoor Recreation Hub of Excellence, a workforce develop- ment initiative to help meet the state's current and future needs for skilled outdoor recreation professionals. VIP Tires & Service in Auburn said it raised $330,00 for Make-A-Wish in 2024 as part of the company's commit- ment to philanthropy. Dirigo Labs in Waterville announced the 12 startups selected for its fourth cohort class including Coelle Travel, BackRiver Blends, Kili Organics, Creativity Codex, Seascale, B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state A Woolwich entrepreneur thinks out of the box B y P e t e r V a n A l l e n O pBox Maine has provided structures for pop-up booths for L.L.Bean, CLYNK and for a Rockefeller Center holi- day display. The "boxes," which look like sleeker versions of shipping containers, come in different sizes and can be fitted out for a range of uses. On a recent visit to the Woolwich site, where OpBox and its sister company Edura Marine occupy 15,000 square feet, workers were filling two significant orders. For the recycling company CLYNK, 30-foot-long OpBoxes were being outfitted with automated collection windows, solar arrays and a corresponding circuit board. The CLYNK OpBoxes will be loaded onto a flatbed truck and shipped to Connecticut, New York and, eventually, California. For Safe Harbor Marinas, at least 20 OpBoxes are being outfitted as merchandise shops that will be at waterside sites in marinas. (Safe Harbor, which has 138 marinas in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, was acquired in February by pri- vate equity firm Blackstone Infrastructure for $5.65 billion.) OpBox and Edura Marine are led by Ben Davis, an entre- preneur with a vision for startups. A product with a range of uses OpBoxes are built with a structural board made by its sis- ter company Edura Marine, which is under the same roof in Woolwich. Combined, the companies have 20 employees. Edura uses a recycled PET foam core, purchased from a company in Texas, that is then coated at the Woolwich site with a composite "skin," which gives the 4-by-8-foot panels a rigidity and strength. The Edura panels are used for the floor, walls and ceiling of the OpBoxes. But Davis envisions a range of possible uses, from boatbuilding to insulation for a range of buildings. The panels are sound enough that structures don't need standard framing. The product can be produced in different thicknesses for different uses. And structures with the Edura set-up "are cheaper than bricks and mortar," Davis says. A boatbuilder in Steuben, A.R. Kennedy Customs, is test- ing out the Edura products in boats. In the OpBox/Edura lobby, there's a prototype dinghy built entirely of Edura panels, with joints sealed with epoxy. With the possibilities for Edura and OpBox expanding, Davis says the companies are already outgrowing the Woolwich space. "Edura is the heartbeat," he says. "We'll keep finding opportunities." P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY SP ONSORED BY N O T E W O R T H Y C E N T R A L & W E S T E R N C E N T R A L & W E S T E R N N O T E W O R T H Y S O U T H E R N S O U T H E R N Ben Davis, owner of OpBox and Edura Marine, oversees the manufacturing of products used in pop-up shops, boatbuilding and a range of structures. Christopher Yeaton drills screw holes in aluminum trim for an OpBox at their facility in Woolwich. Thomas Rodda paints the interior of an OpBox for commercial use in Woolwich

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