Rubb Inc. values repeat business

By Sigrid Tornquist

Gaining the trust of customers and keeping it over time is something David Nickerson of Rubb Inc. is proud of. The company built its first major structure in the United States in 1984, for the Merrill Marine Terminal in Portland. The terminal, currently owned by Sprague Energy, is now home for seven of Rubb’s buildings. “The terminal is a waterfront site with a lot of challenges in terms of vehicle traffic, coal dust and other factors, and so we’ve had to innovate through the years by doing things such as setting up positive pressures in buildings to keep dust out,” Nickerson says. “We’ve added ever more complicated and larger buildings to the site.”

The original building is still there, and another building, which was first built on a pier, was later pulled apart and reused. One portion was crane lifted to a new location to serve as a stand-alone structure, and another portion was added onto an existing building in the terminal. “It’s a great example of how flexible these buildings can be. You can pick them up and move them around to different cost-effective configurations,” he says.

“There’s a lot of history for us at this site that we’re proud of.”

Sigrid Tornquist is a freelance author and editor based in St. Paul, Minn. She is also the associate editor of InTents magazine.