You’re on your way home and you drive through a massive cut in the bedrock of the Canadian Shield, with spruce, maple and elm trees towering above.  You pass a small commercial building that houses your corner store, a small café and a few business offices.  Up a winding road where the shimmer of water sparkles amid the branches of the native forest and huge moss-covered boulders, you are heading home to your own private piece of paradise on the Kennebecasis River.  This is the Highlands of Drury Cove, a neighbourhood development that celebrates nature, and the brainchild of partners Scott MacDonald and Mac Blair.

Like most residential developments there are varying parcels of land to pick from, and certain building criteria must be met when you construct your home.  But unlike most projects of its kind, the Highlands are so focused on preserving their biggest asset – the location and surrounding natural environment – that those building criteria also include items like limits on the number of trees you can remove.  Hugging the edges of beautiful Drury Cove on the Kennebecasis River, each plot is either a waterfront or waterview lot, all with spectacular panorama of dazzling water.  “We are really trying to leave it in its natural state.” Says Scott MacDonald.  “From the river you see houses peaking out from the trees, not just a lawn leading down to the water.”

Both Scott and Mac are originally from Saint John, but chose to move away early in life.  An engineer and second generation construction guru respectively, these partners could have easily capitalized on construction booms right across the country.  But after ten years away Scott recently moved back from Toronto, saying simply “I wanted to come home.”

The timing and motivation for his move were a little more complex however.  “There’s opportunity here now.” He says, referring to the chance for success of his development project and the market for it.  “I get about three or four calls a week, many of them from people who don’t live here.  Many of our buyers are moving here from away and will buy from us based just on the photos.”

With Phase 1 of the project moving right along and plans for the following phases of development ready to go, there’s no end to their success in sight for these two innovators.  Life for the residents in the Highlands is calm and beautiful, but for the development team of Scott and Mac its go, go, go.  But then that’s living on their terms.