School adapts former Outpost

KENT — The headquarters of the former online retailer Cyberian Outpost (www.outpost.com) has been purchased by a Kent School alumnus for use by the school, according to Headmaster Richardson Schell.The building was purchased by Waring Partridge, class of 1962, who is president of the school’s board of trustees. At press time, there was no paperwork filed with the town clerk yet on the sale, so the sale price was not publicly available.Cyberian Outpost was started in 1994 in Kent by Darryl Peck. The company sold discount computer hardware and software on the Internet. Its offices were at 23 North Main St., behind the Kent Town Center shopping complex on Route 7. The company was acquired in 2001 by Fry’s Electronics, which is based in California. Schell said Partridge will rent the building to the Kent School for several years at a discounted rate. After the rental period, title to the building will be given to the school. Schell said, “We are delighted with Partridge making this space available for our use, both at a reduced rent and then as a gift.”He said the rental amount has not yet been established. When asked how the space will be used, Schell said, “This will give us space for administrative operations and to expand our pre-engineering program; the popularity of the program has caused it to outgrow its space on our main campus.”The pre-engineering program is part of the school’s efforts to prepare students for the changing professional world. “With companies working at increased productivity and with the ways people work constantly changing,” Schell said, “the jobs of the 21st century will be much different from those that graduates encountered in the last century.” He believes there will be increasing demand for all types of engineers to design, run and maintain the automated assembly lines becoming more common in the world of manufacturing. Schell said the old Cyberian Outpost building has an open floor plan with a few private offices.“About half the space will be used for our pre-engineering program, about 25 percent for other applied sciences and the rest for arts and social functions,” Schell said.The building at 23 North Main and the land around it are appraised at $1,500,000, according to the field card at the Kent assessor’s office.The building has gross square footage of 28,650, of which 19,466 is usable (the total square footage includes an unfinished basement and an open porch), according to the field card.The owner of the building prior to Partridge’s purchase is Kent Commons LLC, which has owned it since 2009. Kent School is a private co-ed boarding school in the town of Kent. The school has a strong crew team and a Waring Partridge Rowing Center. Schell said Patridge went from Kent School to Yale and is a lawyer who has worked as a consultant for McKinsey and Company and spent much of his career at AT&T in New Jersey.