When it comes to building boats in the future, look upriver.

Hodgdon Shipbuilding recently announced it has expanded up the river and into Damariscotta with the leasing of the former Meyer-Diamond building on Angell Lane.

Hodgdon Director of Sales and Marketing Ed Roberts said the acquisition of the 21,500 square-foot space became necessary as the company continues to expand.

“The move to Damariscotta is an expansion of our East Boothbay operation because we outgrew the facilities here,” he said. “Every building we have is full of other new build and refit projects.”

Along with that expansion in space comes the expanding workforce Hodgdon hopes to create with the move, Roberts said.

“We will be transferring about five people from East Boothbay and adding about 10 new jobs,” he said. “The location makes sense for a variety of reasons, one main one is the condition of the building will enable us to honor the delivery date requirements of the tender contracts we currently have since the building requires minimal infrastructure improvements.”

But, that's something Hodgdon has done in the past, Roberts said.

“We have added considerably to the workforce in East Boothbay for these other projects, including nearly a dozen families that have relocated to the Boothbay region,” he said. “Because we can't fit the tenders in the buildings along with the other projects, we needed to expand our operations to a facility dedicated to building our tenders.”

That quick turn around will allow production to begin in February, Roberts said.

Related: Hodgdon Yachts receives loan