Fabrication yard deal rejected

A Connecticut company that hoped to buy the fabrication yard for the Confederation Bridge says it's disappointed the deal was rejected by the P.E.I. cabinet.

The Strait Crossing fabrication yard has been on the block for 10 years, since not long after the bridge was completed. The yard is now 36.5 hectares of land filled with concrete pillars and industrial junk. The Connecticut company is the only group currently interested in buying the property.

"We're going to take an eyesore and beautify it, whether it would have been for residential or [to] make a nice looking renewable energy park," Vinny Porzio, one of two businessmen involved in the deal, told CBC News this week.

"We had no bad intentions for the land and I think we were unfairly denied."

The company has spent $100,000 trying to put the deal together.

Because the size of the land exceeds that which can be purchased by off-Island residents without special approval, the company originally had to apply to the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission.

IRAC approved the deal on July 5. It noted there had been no other interest in the land, and that the town of Borden/Carleton was on side.

That recommendation went to provincial cabinet, and last week the new Liberal government said no.

No reason for the rejection was given.

Porzio said that lack of explanation isn't fair.

"I think it leaves the door open to be abused," he said. "I think it was abused in this case."

Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Carolyn Bertram said she couldn't disclose the reasons government turned it down because of cabinet confidentiality.

Porzio said he and his business partner don't plan to give up. They're trying to find an Islander take over the deal on their behalf.