As Cascade General In 1942, what is now Vigor's
Swan Island facility in Portland began operations as the
Kaiser Company's
Swan Island Shipyard. After the end of
World War II, the Swan Island shipyard was purchased by the
Port of Portland, which operated it as a repair yard. Due to a downturn in the ship repair market in the 1990s, the other companies operating at the Swan Island yard went out of business, leaving Cascade General as the only remaining contractor by 1994. Businessmen Frank Foti and Andrew Rowe bought Cascade General in March 1995, with Foti becoming CEO; the company had no ship repair contracts at the time of purchase, and it was uncertain whether it would be able to continue operations. Despite the company's precarious financial situation, Foti and Rowe submitted a bid to become the exclusive operator of the Swan Island yard, which they ultimately secured in May 1995. The contract granted them control over the yard for five years at a rate of $5.8 million per year. Cascade General was able to secure repair work on a number of vessels in the following years and established better financial footing. By 1997, the company had sales of $132 million and a workforce of 1,200.
Purchase of the Swan Island shipyard In 1997–98, Cascade General engaged in negotiations with the Port of Portland about purchasing the Swan Island shipyard. After securing funding from the British shipbuilding company
Cammell Laird and other lenders, Cascade General purchased the Swan Island facility from the Port of Portland in 2000 at a cost of $30.8 million. The company established the name Vigor Industrial the same year. The sale included of land, cranes, dry docks, and other equipment. Under pressure from its lenders, Cascade General decided to sell Dry Dock 4, which at the time was one of the largest dry docks in North America. The dry dock was ultimately sold to a Bahamian ship repair company for $25 million. The sale proved controversial since the dry dock was originally financed with an $84 million government
bond offering in 1976. In 2006, Vigor Industrial established the barge-building company U.S. Barge as a joint venture with
Oregon Iron Works, a manufacturing company based in
Clackamas, Oregon. The partnership's first barge was launched in October 2007. The U.S. Barge was eventually renamed US Fab before becoming Vigor Fab in 2013.
Expansion and acquisitions In 2010, Vigor purchased Marine Industries Northwest in
Tacoma, Washington. In 2011, Vigor purchased the
Todd Shipyards Corporation for $130 million, acquiring its shipyards in
Seattle,
Bremerton, and
Everett. Todd Shipyards became a wholly owned subsidiary of Vigor and began operating as Vigor Shipyards after the acquisition. Jon Talton wrote for
The Seattle Times that the acquisition made Vigor "the dominant shipbuilding and marine-repair company in the Northwest". In 2012, Vigor acquired Alaska Ship & Drydock in
Ketchikan, Alaska. According to Vigor, the acquisition made the company "the largest ship repair operation by square footage on the West coast". Although the companies referred to it as a merger, the deal made Oregon Iron Works a wholly owned subsidiary of Vigor. A $40 million floating drydock,
The Vigorous, was delivered to the company's Portland shipyard in August 2014. At long, the company claimed the dry dock was the largest in North America. Foti described the drydock as "nearly an exact duplicate" of the one Vigor had sold in 2001. In March 2015, Vigor Industrial acquired Seattle-based aluminum workboat manufacturer Kvichak Marine Industries. Vigor designated the new subsidiary as Vigor Ballard. Vigor announced it would be ending operations at its Everett shipyard in 2017. Vigor announced in late 2017 that it had won a $979,390,000 contract to produce U.S. Army landing craft, designated the
Maneuver Support Vessel (Light). The contract was the largest in the company's history. In 2018, Vigor's Swan Island facility was cited for multiple safety violations by the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In early 2019, Vigor purchased the facilities of
Christensen Yachts in
Vancouver, Washington, and concurrently announced that it would be closing its facility in
Ballard (at the site of the former Kvichak Marine Industries). Employees at the Ballard facility were offered to transfer to Vancouver, where Vigor was preparing to begin production of landing craft for the U.S. Army.
Recapitalization and merger In July 2019, private equity firms
The Carlyle Group and Stellex Capital Management agreed to acquire and merge Vigor Industrial with MHI Holdings LLC, a company in
Norfolk, Virginia, consisting of MHI Ship Repair, Seaward Marine Services, and Accurate Marine Environmental. A parent company, Titan Acquisition Holdings, was created through the merger. Vigor described the merger as part of
recapitalization process to replace the company's old investors "with new investors with the resources to operate on a global scale". Vigor announced the following year that it would be shutting down its operations in Port Angeles. Titan Acquisition Holdings was purchased by private equity firm
Lone Star Funds in 2023. Lone Sar Funds appointed Francesco Valente as Titan's CEO the following year, replacing the retiring Jim Marcotuli. In June 2025, Vigor Industrial consolidated with the four other companies under the ownership of Titan Acquisition Holdings—Continental Maritime of San Diego, MHI Ship Repair and Services, Seaward Marine Services, and Accurate Marine Environmental—to form the Vigor Marine Group. The company's headquarters remained in Portland following the consolidation. In February 2026, private equity firm
Antin Infrastructure Partners reached an agreement to acquire Vigor Marine Group from Lone Star Funds. ==Corporate structure==