Columnists
It’s a golden opportunity
Six hundred and eighty eight acres of land lying on the Picton heights. An operating airport with three runways taking up some 398 of those acres. A business park of 101 acres, with 320,000 square feet of commercial space, fully leased, with a waiting list. A heritage air base with its World War II buildings largely intact. Historic site of the filming of the first season of Canada’s Worst Driver. Residential zoning already in place for 45 acres, with another 128 acres earmarked as future residential. And all of this – the former Camp Picton airbase, could be yours for a shade under $15 million.
The real estate listing says it is a “great site for special events, e.g. film production.’’ But that’s only a start, Let the imagination run wild.
And It’s not really that expensive. Just get seven or eight like-minded homeowners from downtown Toronto—or 14 or 15 homeowners from the County—to mortgage their houses and they could quickly form a small consortium to do the deal.
If a deal can’t be put together from the ground up, there’s always the eccentric billionaire market to consider. Someone out there would surely jump at the chance to to have their own private redoubt to fly in and out of. For instance, Tobias Lutke, the Ottawa based billionaire behind the Shopify company, could fly down in less than an hour on a Friday night, and then spend two full days at the Sandbanks before heading home on the Monday morning without having to take a day off work. The only drawback might be a difficulty in obtaining a park pass, He might have to buy himself the Lake on the Mountain resort as well to ensure he has a place to go swimming.
Or perhaps someone—maybe Donald Trump — would be interested in developing the property into an elite private golf club. Employees of the club could sport period attire to give you the impression you were playing golf with General Dwight Eisenhower or Prime Minister Mackenzie King. Vintage golf sticks would be used. The 19th hole would be located in the barracks.
A billionaire with a keen interest in astronomy and astronautics—say, Richard Branson—might want to acquire the airbase to erect a massive telescope so that he can watch his intergalactic planes circle the earth. Or he could locate a giant mirror above the airbase and watch himself.
A truly eccentric billionaire might want to negotiate for the right to call his acquisition a principality, and himself a prince; after all, the airbase property is more than a hundred acres larger than the whole of Monaco. That would suggest the building of high-end hotels and a casino, which would save County residents from having to go to Belleville or Gananoque to waste their money—assuming we were allowed in. We could wear our most glamorous clothes and feel the thrill of ordering our cocktails shaken not stirred, just like James Bond. The airbase could eventually host an annual Formula 1 Grand Prix and join the international circuit. George Clooney could film a jewellery heist movie at the airbase, drawing on the experience of the Canada’s Worst Driver crew.
If the market for private purchasers dries up, there’s always the government of Canada? With a deficit this year in the hundreds of billions of dollars, 15 million bucks on top of that would be a mere decimal point—much less than the cost of a federal election or the Trans Mountain pipeline.
What would it be used for? Any number of possibilities. An International G-7 or G-20 conference centre? A model affordable housing community with state of the art eco features? A political reeducation camp teaching gender, racial and cultural wokeness to the unwoken?
It’s a wonder the property hasn’t been snapped up already. I’ve always dreamed of developing my own bluegrass music appreciation centre—sure to appeal to just an elite few. What bank would turn down my request for financing?
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