A two-and-a-half-hour drive from Toronto, perched atop a cliff surrounded by farmland and wineries, a 750-acre site in Prince Edward County is poised for an influx of new housing.
What was once a British Royal Air Force training base dating back to 1940 still holds dozens of historic buildings, including former barracks, hangars and mess halls with green facades and red roofs, separated by gravel roads.
Today, many of those buildings have been transformed: one houses a daycare, another contains artist studios, another is a music venue. Other buildings are older, home to longtime tenants that have operated businesses here for years.
Together, they form a 70-acre commercial area known as B31 District, a five-minute drive from Picton’s Main Street. For the developers who bought the land in 2021, this is just the start.
PEC Community Partners has approvals to build an additional 7,500 homes — including single-family homes, condos and rental apartments — on the site, enough to increase Picton’s population to around 20,000 people from 4,500. It’s a development of unprecedented scale for the municipality of Prince Edward County, one that would forever change the region known for its agriculture, wineries, farm-to-table restaurants and proximity to Sandbanks Provincial Park.
While many locals are hopeful that Base31 will bring more housing options, tourism and cultural amenities to the county, a recent lawsuit raises concerns about what it will give back to local residents.
The suit, filed in May by co-owner and former Base31 chief executive officer Tim Jones, accuses his partners of abandoning the project’s “core principle” of ensuring the development is carried out in a way that benefits the existing community, particularly in terms of cultural initiatives. Instead, it alleges, the partners are adopting “a singular focus on short-term financial outcomes.”
(Jones’ lawyer declined an interview with the Star while the case is before the courts. According to the lawsuit, Jones is seeking a buyout and other relief, including damages for wrongful termination.)
Some community members who spoke with the Star have similar concerns, expressing reservations about whether a project of this size will benefit locals. They doubt it will deliver the affordable housing local residents need and worry about the threat to Picton’s small-town charm.
Of particular concern among some local politicians is the roughly $256 million it could cost the municipality to sustain and expand its water infrastructure for new developments. Base31 would repay much of that through development charges, but some worry that given the recent market downturn, development — and therefore, repayment — could stall.
Kate MacNaughton, a local councillor in Picton, said community and council support for the development has been mixed, and the massive scale of the plan is “very uncomfortable” for many residents.
“People who’ve grown up here — they want to recognize their town,” she said.
‘Housing for all’
Jack Winberg is a co-owner of Base31, along with Tim Jones. He is also the chief executive officer of Toronto-area development company Rockport Group. He said he believes the mix of housing planned for the development will help prepare Prince Edward County for the future — and pointed out that it’s not going to happen overnight, but over many years.
“We’re not talking about growing by 10,000 people a year,” he said, adding that developers will start selling 200 pre-construction homes in September. “Is that overwhelming? I hope not. Is it growth? Yes, it is.”
Regarding concerns that the project has become more profit-oriented, Winberg noted it “isn’t a charity.”
“It was always a commercial enterprise,” he said. “But we’ve not stopped investing in the community.”
The plan is to build 7,500 homes — five per cent designated “affordable” — over 30 years.
They will include condo townhomes starting at a “door-crashing price” of $300,000 for a 450-square-foot, one-bedroom unit, as well as freehold townhomes starting at $400,000, bungalow townhomes ranging from $500,000 to $700,000, and detached houses ranging from $600,000 to just over $1 million.
The homes will take about 12 to 18 months to build after selling, and the “likely, optimistic scenario” would see the first batch complete after three to four years, Winberg said.
A 120-unit rental apartment complex is also in the works, with construction beginning in October and expected to take two years. Rent, depending on market conditions, will be about $1,450 per month for studios, $1,950 for one-bedrooms, and $2,500 for two-bedroom units. Twelve studios — 10 per cent of units — will be labelled “affordable,” with rent set at $1,050.
Winberg said the project is designed to offer “housing for all,” including first-time homebuyers, seniors and remote workers. He envisions many buyers arriving from larger cities within driving distance.
“Picton is about two and a half hours from Toronto, three hours from Ottawa, three hours from Montreal,” Winberg said. “We think there’s a lot of people who will find this community to be very attractive.”
Will local residents benefit?
Large sculptures are scattered around B31 District as part of a new partnership with the local Oeno Gallery and a free “art walk” for visitors. Pickleball courts are open to the public, a “sensory garden” is open all summer, and The Commissary hosts free live music, game nights and open mics.
Winberg points to these as just a few examples of the Base’s ongoing commitment to the community.
Former CEO Tim Jones’ lawsuit claims his partners “failed to adhere” to their Statement of Principles, including those to ensure the project “appropriately serves the interests of the community.”
Changes included cutting the budget for a planned museum, reducing investment in arts and culture initiatives, and cancelling partnerships with local organizations, the lawsuit says.
Beginning in 2023, partners “forced Base31 management to shift away from treating cultural programming and community infrastructure as long-term value drivers … and toward treating them as expendable costs,” it reads.
Roy Pennell, a councillor for Ameliasburgh, a ward in the northwest corner of Prince Edward County, echoed concerns that the project seemed to drift from its community focus and become more profit-oriented, saying partners haven’t maintained their efforts to keep council in the loop.
While Winberg rejects the idea that the community has become less of a priority, he also said the project is a commercial enterprise that is giving back to locals in reasonable ways and continuing to communicate with council.
Regarding the museum, Winberg called it a “very expensive, $10 million-priced thought that (Jones) had.” The partners couldn’t justify it, and opted for an “exhibition hall” of a Second World War training site instead — one that people have donated their stories and artifacts to.
According to the suit, the National Air Force Museum loaned a Lancaster bomber to Base31 at no cost, based on an agreement to make it a central focus for a museum, one that was going to be a “multimillion-dollar cultural institution.”
The suit also claimed Base31 “dramatically” scaled back public art investment, for instance by cancelling an illuminated nighttime art walk and eliminating live music programming at the Commissary stage. However Winberg said there are no plans to stop music programming there.
The suit further claims that budget and staff cuts demanded by one partner in 2024 led to the elimination of partnerships with key local arts organizations: the Department of Illumination, County Arts Council, Big Lake Arts, Melt Gallery and County Stage Company. None of the groups responded to the Star’s request for comment.
But Winberg brushed off the community-related claims, saying he believes Jones is upset because he’s no longer as involved in Base31. “That’s what I think is driving this,” he said. “He’s not happy as an owner because he doesn’t have the kind of day-to-day interaction with what’s going on here that he did.”
In a statement to the Star, Jones’ lawyer Daniel Naymark said the parties “made a shared commitment,” but “after major planning approvals were secured, the other partners changed direction and pushed Tim aside.
“That is not what Tim agreed to, not what he had a right to expect from his partners, and not something he can support for the community he now calls home. That is why he brought this lawsuit.”
A $256-million water bill
One of the biggest controversies surrounding the new development is the anticipated cost for new water and wastewater infrastructure that could amount to as much as $255.5 million.
Base31 needs the municipality to build the new infrastructure to service most of its approved 7,500 homes, but many constituents — who already have some of the highest water rates in Ontario — worry about being stuck with the bill.
Winberg said he anticipates the municipality will have enough capacity to service Base31’s first 400 homes, and said developers have already invested $12 million into water infrastructure that services the existing commercial part of the development.
But the municipality says it is investigating whether it should take on $255.5 million of new debt to update its water and wastewater system and to accommodate growth proposed in new developments. While Base31 would repay a significant portion of that cost through development charges when they start building homes, some worry that given the market downturn, Base31 may stall construction and not provide those returns for decades to come.
Prince Edward County Mayor Steve Ferguson said the municipality has an obligation to ensure developers who want to build in the area have the infrastructure “to do just that.”
The municipality is looking into funding from the provincial and federal governments, as well as potential upfront payments from developers, Ferguson added, “so it’s still very much a work in progress.”
Coun. MacNaughton noted that the provincial government gives municipalities a mandate to enable growth. But “when you’re taking on that much financial risk in a small municipality, it rightfully sets off a lot of alarm bells because if the growth scenarios don’t happen, where does it leave us?”
Coun. Pennell said the infrastructure costs, split between just 6,000 existing ratepayers with no upfront help from the developer, could “break the municipality.” If it ends up fronting all the money, there will be “war on the street,” he said.
Picton Coun. Phil St-Jean, who sees Base31 as a source of economic activity and building Prince Edward County’s taxpayer base, said he does not see Base31’s plan as a risk for the municipality. However, he is in favour of an agreement where the developer helps pay for costs up front.
“I don’t see them as a drain on our systems,” St-Jean said. “I see them as an asset.”
On Thursday, the municipality’s Committee of the Whole voted against endorsing the $255.5-million strategy. Council is expected to vote on the matter on Sept. 8. If it rejects the plan, it could put Base31’s planned housing at risk.
Base31’s Winberg said the developers are confident their approach will be attractive to buyers.
Even if development is slow, he said, the work would have to proceed at some point to serve existing ratepayers, and it will serve the county for decades.
“Their water systems are failing,” he said. “So part of the cost to be incurred in improving the infrastructure is to help improve the quality of life for the existing residents. And there’s that sharing that has to be done.”
Growth without destruction
Despite the concerns, there is support for the Base31 development in Prince Edward County. Many local business owners and residents are excited about a potential influx of new visitors and residents — and they appreciate that some historic buildings are being restored.
Jordan Malka, who runs Beacon Bike + Brew on Picton’s Main Street, said he’s feeling optimistic about the potential growth.
“I’m a small-business owner, so any opportunity to have a broader community at our doorstep, first and foremost, that’s positive,” he said, along with having more people to employ at the shop year-round.
Picton resident Dominic Smith, who works with a social impact agency, said Prince Edward County’s food insecurity, homelessness, and other affordability challenges have worsened in recent years, and he believes a development as big as Base31 should ensure it “serves” the affordability crisis.
“Because of the size and scale they’re working towards, that is at the forefront of my mind,” he said.
Winberg noted the group has purchased a 10-room home for Prince Edward County to use as a transitional shelter, at the municipality’s request, and is leasing it out at “minimal rent.”
Local historian Peter Lockyer, who has a partnership with Base31, said the county has evolved in the past, and is better for it today.
“We have lots of history in Canada — small rural towns like Picton — but we’re not making any money out of it,” he said. “And we need to make money out of it because all of these organizations and special places are now currently run by volunteers who are aging.”
The local economy suffered after the canning industry of fruits and vegetables died out in the 1960s, Lockyer said, but was helped by the wine industry in the 1990s that eventually led to more restaurants, chefs, hotels and tours.
“So I’m saying, in the context of Prince Edward County, something we really haven’t packaged up as a product that sold is our history,” he said. “That’s the founding premise of Base31.”
But some fear, over time, that the growth could change the character that makes their community feel special.
Picton resident Deborah Findlay said residents don’t want to lose farmland to development or independent businesses to another Tim Hortons.
“I don’t want it to destroy what we’ve got here, ‘cause it’s so beautiful,” Findlay said. “But you have to have change to have growth.”
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