Kris Taylor has an idea for Borden-Carleton’s long idle fabrication yard, an industrial plot of land that has sat unused since 1997.
Taylor believes the site, which was used as a construction yard for the Confederation Bridge in the 1990s, would be an ideal spot for a new golf course.
His idea for the redevelopment of the fabrication yard may not be the only one in the works, but it is set to be the first detailed plan the public can see.
Taylor is hosting a community meeting where he plans to outline his plans to establish a course, known as the Abegweit Links, on the yard.
Taylor has worked on several unique projects in recent years, including operating Hunter River’s Harmony House between 2008 and 2020 and converting a hilltop church into a condominium.
In a Facebook post he penned, but which was posted by a colleague – Taylor says he is not on social media – he says he recently began looking for a site of a new golf course in P.E.I. after noticing most courses were completely booked from spring until late fall.
“I didn’t look for very long until I somehow found myself standing in the old fabrication yard of the Confederation Bridge in Borden-Carleton,” Taylor wrote in the online message, which has been shared more than 600 times as of Sept. 25, often receiving encouraging words.
“I was almost immediately spellbound with the property envisioned as a golf track.”
Taylor hopes to incorporate the industrial infrastructure of the yard into the design of the course. He said the site reminds him of coastal courses in Scotland or Ireland.
“I felt like I was Old Tom Morris surveying what would be a classic links,” he said in the post. “The site was stripped flat and lifeless. That’s where the original courses started. On what was considered poor land. Land that was unusable for farming or anything else.”
Taylor concedes it is far from clear whether a golf course would be the most desired project by Borden-Carleton residents.
“I don’t think my boat floats unless the community wants to float it,” he said in an interview.
The industrial site was levelled by the P.E.I. government, which owns most of the property, last spring. It includes a lengthy jetty and had, until recently, been strewn with slabs of concrete.
An email from Vicki Tse, a representative of the Department of Economic Development, Innovation and Trade, said the province has engaged a consultant to “help develop conceptual plans” for the fabrication yard. Tse said the province is working closely with the Town of Borden-Carleton.
“This has always been a collaborative process between both levels of government as both want to see this property developed in such a way that will fit the vision and needs of the residents in Borden,” Tse told SaltWire in an email.
Tse said a public tendering process will take place for the use of the site after the consultants’ report is completed.
