On May 20, PEC Community Partners Inc., christened its vision for the now former Loch-Sloy Business Park and Picton Airport lands as “Base31.”

The company who purchased the site in December 2021 is a partnership comprised of Tercot Communities, Deco Communities, Rockport Group, and PEC Placemaking. The partnership is seeking to redevelop the 700 acre former site of the RAF No. 31 Bombing and Gunnery School under the lens of social enterprise, iterative community collaboration, and creative placemaking. They plan to focus immediately on a 70 acre segment of the site, comprised of 40 buildings. Their development efforts for the segment will focus on a regenerative approach to landscaping to restore ecological health to the site, a public art investment which will recruit artists to aid in reimagining the site’s buildings, and an events/concerts space including comedy/cabaret café/lounges.

As for the remaining 700 acres of the property, PEC Community Partners will be seeking to create housing developments, including those in the affordable range, but their exact shape and form is apparently open to community collaboration and placemaking since according to them it is a destination in progress.

As for the Picton Airport, which operates on the site, for the time being the new owners plan to operate it for another year. As well, in a show of good faith, and a desire to raise all the community’s boats together, PEC Community Partners announced that they have made more than a dozen community investments to date and are planning a benefit concert to support Tsi Tyónnheht Onkwawén:na (or TTO), the local Mohawk language and cultural centre, when the site opens on July 2.

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