For the past three years, Vertical Harvest Maine L3C — a project of Wyoming architect Nona Yehia — has been the darling of the Maine political and media establishment.
Championed by Westbrook Mayor Mike Foley and blessed with a glowing September 2025 photo-op by Gov. Janet Mills (D), the $80 million taxpayer-funded indoor hydroponic farm was sold to the public as a miracle of “conscious capitalism.”
The pitch, orchestrated by Yehia with slick websites and all the right green talking points, was intoxicating to Democrats: an urban farm built on a former municipal parking lot, powered by green energy, and staffed by individuals with disabilities.
The Portland Press Herald ran breathless puff pieces promising the facility would produce 6,850 pounds of salad greens a day.
But behind the glossy architectural renderings and the ribbon-cuttings, Vertical Harvest was already collapsing under the weight of its own debt at the time Mills made her appearance.
Shockingly — the highly touted indoor farming startup has yet to exceed more than 3-4 percent of its operating capacity, a generous estimate, has just two employees, and public records show the company is facing mounting financial distress.
Despite massive infusions of government support—including the $48.7 million in USDA-backed guaranteed loans and an additional $1 million in Direct Loans from the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME)—the company is struggling to meet its basic operational and transactional obligations.
The most acute financial threat to Vertical Harvest Maine L3C comes from a lawsuit filed late last year in Cumberland County Superior Court by Waterside Commercial Finance, the Canadian broker that helped secure the company’s massive USDA-backed loan.
In an interview Wednesday, Vertical Harvest Co-Founder and CEO Nona Yehia defended the company’s position, confirming the facility is currently in a “ramp phase” and promising full production by the end of the year.
Yehia said the lawsuit — in which Waterside accuses Vertical Harvest and its Canadian financial backers of fraud — is a complicated and complex matter.
According to the complaint, Vertical Harvest was unable to pay Waterside’s standard 2 percent brokerage fee—$975,000—when the nearly $49 million loan closed in April 2024. Instead, the company scraped together just $75,000 at closing and deferred the remaining $900,000 into a highly punitive subordinated note.
Under the terms of that agreement, the debt doubled to $1.8 million by month eight and continues to accrue a 25 percent annual default interest rate.
The lawsuit alleges more than just breach of contract. Waterside claims Vertical Harvest and its venture capital backer, Raiven Fund Management and founding partner Paul Dugsin, actively engaged in fraud to hide a cash infusion in September 2025 that should have triggered an immediate repayment clause.
When asked about the lawsuit, Yehia declined to go into specifics but contested the plaintiff’s narrative.
“Obviously it’s an ongoing dispute, and it’s from a complex vendor relationship, broker relationship,” Yehia said. “There are some things we don’t agree with and we feel have been mischaracterized, and we’ll address it through the appropriate channels.”
A recent unannounced visit to the Westbrook facility revealed that the massive, multi-level building is currently producing what can fairly be estimated at four or five salads, with only two small troths of actively growing greens and two employees on site.
Yehia confirmed the two employees and the low capacity but disputed that the project is failing to launch.
“The facility is currently churning out salad at a limited capacity. Like I said, we are in our ramp phase,” Yehia said. She noted they are currently distributing through Native Maine and have local commitments from Jordan’s Farm and the Westbrook School District. She added that they expect to be at “close to full capacity by the end of the year.”
But the slow ramp-up is creating immediate cash-flow problems at the local level. The company currently owes the City of Westbrook more than $45,000 in unpaid property taxes, resulting in a formal tax lien filed against the company.
“We have been working with the city of Westbrook, who has been patient in our ramp phase,” Yehia said. “We were delayed in our production, and so we will be able to meet those obligations. It’s just a matter of time.”
Vertical Harvest, which operates a much smaller facility in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Yehia said the facility was one-twentieth the size of the Westbrook plant, but founded with a dual mission: growing food year-round in harsh climates and providing customized employment for people with disabilities.
While the company aims to have 40 percent of its workforce identify as having physical or intellectual disabilities, Yehia confirmed that during this current limited ramp-up phase, the Westbrook facility employs only two people who meet that criteria.
The two individuals at the facility on Tuesday declined interviews, so we didn’t get a chance to learn about the disability with which they identify.
Yehia stressed that the employment mission remains “front and center” to why she leads the company.
When pressed on whether the state-subsidized, out-of-state enterprise, brokered by a Canadian company for the benefit of a Canadian venture cap firm presents unfair competition to local Maine farmers, Yehia pointed out that traditional farmers cannot produce the same crops during the harsh Maine winter.
“I’m not sure if I’m aware of any local producers that are able to grow greens in December or January or February,” Yehia said.
“We’re competing with produce that’s imported from California,” Yehia said, speaking as if the facility was actually producing product.
As Vertical Harvest attempts to scale up to full production over the next eight months, the central question is whether the company can generate enough cash to satisfy a growing line of creditors. When asked who gets paid first—the federal government, the city of Westbrook, the VC backers, or the broker—Yehia acknowledged the precarious juggling act.
“That’s a very complex ongoing conversation,” Yehia said. “And we’re working that out right now with all of our stakeholders and partners.”
Waterside declined to comment for this story.
According to the complaint, they don’t see the conflict as complex.
The subordinate note Vertical Harvest agreed to as a desperate move to clinch the Biden Era USDA loan required the urban farm / social media hype company to immediately repay Waterside if they received any “Qualified Financing” over $500,000.
Waterside alleges Vertical Harvest received a massive cash infusion from Raiven in September 2025 — the same month Gov. Mills visited — but actively hid it to avoid paying the broker.
Waterside also claims Vertical Harvest and Raiven fraudulently induced them into the deferred fee arrangement by falsely claiming the senior lenders (likely the USDA) had pre-approved “leaking” funds to pay the broker, which wasn’t true.
As for the fate of the most expensive salad shooter in Maine — or perhaps in the country — Yehia has promised a tour of the facility when the greens really start flying by the end of the year.
To be continued…
If this were a Republican backed project, the dems would be out with their pitforks and torches.