FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Franklin Street Marine Corridor to Open New Building;
New IYRS Marine Systems Training Facility Being Launched
New Construction is Cornerstone of Industrial/Education Park
Where Students and the Marine Trades Mix
Bristol, RI, March 2009 … The latest in a development of commercial facilities on Franklin Street in Bristol isn’t just another new building. Scheduled for its Official Opening on March 28, the building at the corner of Franklin and Buttonwood Streets “represents the culmination of an idea to bring the marine trades and related educational programs together,” according to Andy Tyska, Developer of the Franklin Street Marine Corridor. “In fact, the development itself is a unique effort to provide an incubator for marine businesses as well as flexible space for marine trades expansion in Bristol and the State.”
According to Paul Harden, Manager/Business & Workforce Development, RI Economic Development Corp., “the new model for a combined industrial/educational park is, to my knowledge, unique in the marine business. It offers students the opportunity to see, first hand, marine businesses at work and get into the workforce faster. For the businesses involved, there’s a pool of talent being trained next door and they have an opportunity to affect the type of training that’s provided!”
Over the past few years, the area from Buttonwood Street to Metacom Avenue in Bristol has come together as a unique place for marine trades–related businesses to operate. Starting with storage and repair facilities for Mr. Tyska’s own Bristol Marine full service boat yard, the “industrial park” grew over ten years to include new buildings that have housed twenty businesses responsible for 160 jobs. As part of that development, the International Yacht Restoration School set up a Marine Systems Training Facility at the Bristol site offering courses in electrical, electronic, engine, A/C and other systems that go into today’s boats. Now the School has expanded and will occupy a 5,000-sq. ft. section of the new building that was designed to accommodate their needs. The now truly integrated “industrial/educational” park presently includes six buildings, outside storage space for boats being worked on by the park tenants, and a whole new area across Franklin Street for future development at the site of the old Fulflex Mill. A boat transportation corridor is also being planned to unite the site, just a half mile from Bristol Harbor, to waterfront access at Bristol Marine.
Marking this milestone in the Marine Corridor growth, an Official Opening will be held and the IYRS Marine Systems Training Facility will be launched Saturday, March 28 from 9 AM to 12 noon. Festivities will begin at 9:15 AM with a seminar for students and prospective marine industry workers covering “Funding Sources for Training,” the Official Opening of the “Cornerstone Building” will take place at 10:00 AM, and a second seminar, “Career Paths in the Marine Industry,” will follow at 10:30 AM. The event is free and open to the public.
NOTE TO MEDIA:
For more information on the Franklin Street Marine Corridor, contact:
Carol Dietz (401-683-7667)
For more inforation on IYRS and the Systems Facility, contact:
Cynthia Goss (203-453-2731)
Susan Daly (401-848-5777, ext. 220)