IYRS expands in Newport

THE IYRS School of Technology & Trades has acquired a half-acre parcel of the Casey Marina properties at Spring Wharf for $1.9 million.
THE IYRS School of Technology & Trades has acquired a half-acre parcel of the Casey Marina properties at Spring Wharf for $1.9 million.

NEWPORT – IYRS School of Technology & Trades has acquired a half-acre parcel of the Casey Marina properties at Spring Wharf for $1.9 million.

The school plans to move its Bristol-based programs in composites technology and marine systems into the new facilities, which are to the south of the school’s Newport campus. An incubator also will be established there to bring industry and IYRS closer together through collaborative projects, IYRS said in a press release. The parcel was purchased from Bill Casey.

The programs will remain in Bristol for another 18 to 24 months as the new building is constructed, Terry Nathan, IYRS president, said on Monday.

This is the latest project for IYRS. Five years ago, the school restored the 27,000-square-foot Aquidneck mill building on its 2.5-acre waterfront campus. The mill, on the National Register of Historic Places, is home to the school, as well as commercial tenants.

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“We have an extraordinary model for experiential learning at a time when there is great need in the economy for people who can make, manufacture and build either through great hand work or through the use of technology,” Nathan said in a statement.

More than 90 percent of graduates have been employed on or about the time of graduation, according to IYRS.

IYRS also has collaborated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design and Roger Williams University. The school is in similar discussions with Salve Regina University.

“The school’s development has helped Newport economically as well,” Nathan said. “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.”

IYRS School of Technology & Trades was founded as the International Yacht Restoration School.

IYRS has three accredited schools – the school of composites technology, the school of boatbuilding & restoration and the school of marine systems.

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