PEC Community Partners Inc. Renames Loch Sloy Business Park to Base31

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PEC Community Partners Inc. Renames Loch Sloy Business Park to Base31

Collaborators and Summer Programming Announced

Base31 collaborates with 31 organizations, businesses and individuals

 

Picton, ON, May 20, 2022 – PEC Community Partners Inc. is pleased to announce that Base31 is the new name for the site formerly known as Loch Sloy Business Park and Airport. Inspiration for the new name came from the sites’ former function as the Royal Airforce’s No.31 Bombing and Gunnery School. The vision for Base31 is being built from the ground up and is best described as follows:

Base31 is a platform for creative collaboration on the grounds of a former WWII airbase in Picton, Ontario. An evolving fusion of art, ecology, heritage, industry and innovation, Base31 invites you to peer into its past and co-create its future.

Tim Jones, CEO of Base31 and a partner in PEC Community Partners said, “We are thrilled to introduce our new name to the community and celebrate the partnerships and collaborations we have formed since acquiring the site,” he adds, “We have spent the last five months connecting with local artists, makers, tenants, heritage enthusiasts, naturalists, community leaders and storytellers, to engage them in co-creating the future of Base31 with us.”

Among the collaborators are the Municipality of Prince Edward County, All Welcome Here, PEC Arts Council, History Lives Here, Department of Illumination, The County Foundation, Chamber of Commerce, Festival Players, Driftwood Theatre, PEC Library, Jacqui Burley and many more. Visit www.Base31.ca for the growing list of collaborators.

Along with these collaborations, the team has been busy renovating buildings, transforming the landscape, commissioning public art and lining up summer programming. The calendar is filled with art shows, comedy festivals, music shows, and food events.

Highlights of summer programming include the We’re Funny That Way Queer Comedy and Music Festival and musical performances by David Wilcox, SLOAN and Sarah Harmer. To end the 2022 concert season, Base31 will host a benefit concert for Tsi Tyónnheht Onkwawén:na language school in Tyendinaga.

Base31 opens to the public July 1, 2022.

More details available on the website:  www.base31.ca

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About PEC Community Partners Inc.:

PEC Community Partners Inc. – a group of community builders including Tercot Communities,DECO Communities, PEC Placemaking, and Rockport Group. The Ontario-based partnership brings together expertise in mixed-use residential, affordable housing and commercial space, adaptive re-use of heritage sites, and complete community development with a specific focus on creative placemaking. PEC Community Partners Inc. purchased the Loch-Sloy Business Park, an approximately 700-acre property in Prince Edward County, Ontario, the former site of a World War II training base.

Resources:

High res images here

Website: www.base31.ca

Social: @Base31PEC

 

MEDIA CONTACT

 Daniela Kelloway, Head Marketing + Communications, Base31

+1 613 921 2868

danielak@base31.ca

 

Base31 Facts:

31 Artists and organizations collaborating with

10+ Events in the summer of 2022

11 makers in the house

8 local team members

3 community building partners

Key Facts about the lands Base31 occupies:

 

• Prince Edward County lies on the traditional lands of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Mississauga nations. Indigenous peoples continue to live in PEC. Base31 recognizes that we make, work, live, meet, grow and create on the traditional territory of the Anishnaabeg, Wendat and Haudenosaunee Peoples and adjacent to the Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) community of Tyendinaga. All non-Indigenous people are visitors to this land, and embrace our Treaty obligation to take care of this land.
• The 70-acre Base31 site includes more than 50 former barracks, mess halls, hangars and administrative buildings. It is part of an approximately 700-acre property.
• The site was built by the Canadian government and originally operated by the British Royal Airforce as No. 31 Bombing and Gunnery School. It was built in 1940 as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan that trained aircrews from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand during World War II.
• After the war, Canadian forces took over command, renamed the site Camp Picton and continued to use it as a training base.
• The site was decommissioned as a military base in 1969 and sold to former Mayor of Picton, H. J. McFarland. He renamed it Loch-Sloy in honour of his Scottish heritage.
• The site transferred ownership again in 1999, but kept the Loch Sloy name and created the Loch-Sloy Business Park. Loch Sloy Holdings Inc. under the management of Jacqui Burley is credited with preserving many of the site’s heritage buildings by adapting them for new uses.
• Today the site is home to 75 tenants and is used for a wide range of business activities including commercial and industrial operations as well as space for makers, artists and galleries.
• PEC Community Partners Inc. finalized the purchase of the property on December 16, 2021.