IYRS Announces Land Purchase, Newport Campus Expansion

IYRS School of Technology and Trades will be expanding its Newport campus after buying a half-acre parcel of the Casey Marina properties at Spring Wharf for $1.9 million.

School officials announced the sale on Friday and said the purchase “further demonstrates IYRS’ continued progress.”

That could be an understatement, considering the recent growth and expansion of the experiential learning school that focuses on highly-technical and craft-oriented career skills in the marine trades.

Enrollment is up, the school restored the 27,000 foot Aquidneck mill building on the existing 2.5 acre waterfront campus in 2009 and has recently collaborated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design and Roger Williams University.

The land purchase will enable the school to move its Bristol-based programs in composites technology and marine systems into the new facilities “and to use these facilities to establish a Rhode Island incubator to bring industry and IYRS closer through collaborative projects,” according to a release.

The lot is immediately south to the school’s Newport campus.

Newport, also known as the City-by-the-Sea, is an ideal place for such an initiative as the home to U.S. Sailing, commercial fishermen, pleasure boaters and cruise ships, to scratch the surface.

“The school’s development has helped Newport economically as well,” said Terry Nathan, president of IYRS. “We have helped to improve the neighborhood through campus restoration; brought employers from out of state into the mill building who have in turn created jobs; and now with increasing enrollment, we are bringing even more revenue into the community. It is a win-win for IYRS and Newport.”

IYRS boasts that 90 percent of graduates have found jobs upon or shortly after graduation. Many continue to work here in Rhode Island, demonstrating that IYRS is one reason the state might hang on to some marine trade businesses that otherwise would leave due to a lack of a skilled workforce.

Other graduates go on to continue their education in related fields, like architecture, engineering and other technical fields.

Photo Courtesy: IYRS via Facebook