April 29, 2019 Edition

Marketing & Media

🔒In 25 years, the essentials at Mainebiz haven’t changed

When you reach a milestone like a 25th anniversary you tend to reflect on the changes that you have managed through, and about how we do business today is different from 25 years ago. I remember that my first “act” as publisher of Mainebiz 20 years ago was to purchase a plain paper fax machine. It seemed like a radical and major upgrade at the time.

News

🔒After 25 years, we look back, but stay focused on future

As much as it’s been fun to look back, we are very much looking ahead. With the new website, we also join much of the rest of the media industry in instituting a subscriber pay wall.

Marketing & Media

🔒Mainebiz’s 25th anniversary timeline

In December 1994, the first issue of BIZ, the predecessor to Mainebiz, hits the streets published by BIZ Publications in Portland. Jonathan Whitney and Eric Obery are the company principals, and Shirley Jacks is editor.

Banking & Finance

🔒Investment will fuel Tilson’s rollout of 5G networks

Portland-based Tilson will be in a stronger position to offer its national client base a wider range of products, from 5G rollouts to cutting-edge “internet of things” technology services — thanks to a recent investment of $100 million.

Professional services

🔒What it means to be trustee of a family trust

Q: I agreed to be named as trustee of a family member’s trust. Practically speaking, what does...

Fisheries & Marine

🔒As some fisheries crashed, lobster and aquaculture filled the gap

Maine’s wild fisheries have experienced numerous challenges over the past 25 years. A booming lobster resource has helped keep fishermen employed. And emerging aquaculture sectors are viewed as having great potential for diversifying the economy.

Banking & Finance

🔒Mergers have changed the face of banking in Maine

Banks doing business in Maine in 1994 could be divided much the way they are now — the banks based in Maine and out-of-state banks with a large presence here. Many of the Maine-based banks are still around, if bigger, now. There have been some mergers here and there. But it’s with the national banks that Maine has seen some of the biggest changes.

Subscriber Only

🔒An industry with a family tree: Much of Maine’s biotech industry grew out of two firms

Like some of its products, cultivated from the cells, strands and science of living organisms, Maine’s biotechnology industry has grown organically.

Higher education

🔒Maine has become a hub of call centers

Call centers — those banks of pleasant, headset-wearing workers who seem to be at the end of every toll-free telephone line — are an unseen but vital part of Maine’s economy, working behind the scenes for companies like L.L.Bean and Bank of America.

Agriculture

🔒Maine’s marijuana dilemma: ‘Cannabiz’ poised to grow, but in a holding pattern

Twenty-five years ago, Maine’s marijuana proprietors were more likely to be named in a local police blotter than the pages of Mainebiz. But today, Patricia Rosi, CEO of Wellness Connection of Maine, proudly talks about her company’s business in medical-use cannabis, which Maine legalized in 1999. “This is a booming industry,” she says.

Higher education

🔒Workforce development: Community colleges have pivoted in how they train workers

The focus on training students for the state’s industrial economy had been a workable model in the decades after the war and, by 1994, when York County Vocational-Technical Institute opened, there were seven campuses in the state. That’s the year things began to change. Now, not only is the name and focus different, but even the “community” the schools serve is a radical departure from 25 years ago. The key word now is partnering.

Aging population

🔒Maine’s demographic challenge: The population is static — and getting older

Maine’s economy in recent years has been overshadowed by its so-called demographic problem.The state’s population is the...

Health care

🔒Soaring health care costs drive consolidation of Maine’s hospitals

Escalating costs have driven consolidation of hospitals and other health care facilities into sprawling systems over the past 25 years.

Higher education

🔒Maine’s colleges and universities find new, innovative areas for growth

With the cost of tuition, room and board tipping past $250,000 for a bachelor’s degree — two...

Economic development

🔒Internet access has come light years, but some issues echo those of the ‘90s

In the mid-1990s, internet connections, if available in Maine, were dial-up. A handful of internet service providers, like GWI, which began in 1994, were formed to provide local internet, which was then used mostly by businesses. Twenty-five years later, there are 80 service providers across Maine, according to Broadbandnow.com.

Manufacturing

🔒The Maine brand: Value of products created here continues to grow

Maine as a brand may be hard to define or measure, but it’s steadily gaining in value, thanks to consumer names making their mark beyond the state’s borders.

Manufacturing

🔒After years of decline, manufacturing in Maine is in a modest upswing

A line graph depicting manufacturing’s workforce in Maine over the past 25 years is not a pretty sight. From 1995, the manufacturing sector was in a steep steady decline for 15 years, falling from 84,700 jobs at the start of 1995 to 51,000 jobs in 2010. It levels off at roughly 51,000, with slight seasonal dips and rises, until the end of 2018, when it begins a modest rise.

Energy & Utilities

🔒In the past 25 years, renewable energy in Maine moved into the mainstream

The energy mix of Maine’s power supply has undergone a substantial shift since 1994, when 33% of...

Economic development

🔒Demand for commercial real estate has fueled a building boom

With recovery from the 2008 recession came a real estate boom that started in 2011 and has steadily grown since.

Economic development

🔒Hot property: After decades of decline, cities return to their downtown centers

Municipalities are finding ways to bring new life to downtowns, spurred by federal tax incentives, local programs and, increasingly, public-private partnerships.

Economic development

🔒Reclaiming real estate: Yesterday’s factory site is today’s 24/7 mixed-use development

Transformation of shuttered mills, abandoned industrial sites, derelict waterfronts and decommissioned military bases have changed Maine over the past quarter century.

Retail & Food Service

🔒From Portland to Freedom, restaurants are putting Maine on the map for foodies

There’s a good and a bad side to Portland’s being named 2018 restaurant of the year by Bon Appétit magazine. On the one hand, it’s long overdue recognition of an evolving foodie culture that’s an increasing draw for tourists and transplants from away keen to get away from bigger, busier and pricier cities. But being in the national spotlight also has its drawbacks, like big crowds on weekends during the prime tourist season.

Real Estate & Construction

🔒Retail continues to evolve in the face of rapid change

Today the retail market is very much driven by the speed, reliability and ease of buying virtually anything from Amazon and its convenient membership arm, Amazon Prime.

Fisheries & Marine

🔒New technologies shape growth of ship-and-boatbuilding industry in past 25 years

Technological advances revolutionized the boatbuilding industry over the past 25 years. Front Street Shipyard, Brooklin Boat Yard, Hodgdon Yachts, Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding, Hinckley Yachts and others are working with new lightweight, high-strength materials and digital tools, from computer numerical control machines to computer-aided drafting.

Banking & Finance

🔒Pitch competitions stoke Maine’s startup environment

Maine has a flourishing support network for start-up and early-stage companies that’s rooted in the organic growth of industry clusters like aquaculture, electronic commerce, food and beverage, and financial technology.

Subscriber Only

🔒35 million visitors a year (and counting)

Over the past 25 years, an increasing number of visitors have discovered Maine’s attractions. As a result, Maine has seen a huge increase in the presence of national hotel brands, complementing an equally strong brand of small, locally owned lodgings.

Government & Politics

🔒Inspiring women: Shattering the glass ceiling in politics and business

Maine boasts a number of female trailblazers who have broken through the glass ceiling in sectors from politics to business, offering inspiration to their contemporaries and future generations. They’ve founded and led companies as well as institutions of higher leaning and other nonprofits, and made their mark in traditionally male-dominated industries. Too numerous to list each by name, a few stand out for their achievements.

Real Estate & Construction

🔒Shipyard’s Forsley reflects on brewer’s past, present and ‘brewtel’ future

Fred Forsley, founder and CEO of Portland-based Shipyard Brewing Co., was profiled in the first issue of Mainebiz, when both were startups. Today, Shipyard is Maine’s largest brewer.

News

🔒Newsworthy people and performances for April 29

The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry hired Nancy McBrady as director of the bureau of agriculture, food and rural resources and Emily Horton as director of policy and community engagement.

Economic development

🔒Field of dreams: Portland Sea Dogs host 7 million fans over 25 years

Right from their start, in April 1994, the Portland Sea Dogs have been embraced by their fans in Maine. In their first year, they drew an Eastern League record 375,000 fans. By the next year, the team was drawing well over 400,000.

Marketing & Media

🔒Maine craft beer comes of age: From one brewer in mid-1980s to 144 today

While craft beer was an “urban hipster thing” until around 2015, Sullivan notes that it has since spread to rural areas, opening craft “to a whole new audience.” That includes older customers and visitors from away, as more brewers offer overnight accommodations and other add-ons to attract more customers.

April 29, 2019 EditionEdition

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