OTTAWA - A proposed new downtown arena for the Ottawa Senators is in jeopardy after mediation failed to produce a settlement between parties looking to develop a community at LeBreton Flats.
Judge Warren Winkler, the mediator retained by the RendezVous LeBreton Group, has advised the National Capital Commission that no settlement could be reached. The NCC had set Thursday as the deadline for a settlement.
The NCC board of directors will hold a teleconference on Thursday to review the development. The crown corporation, which controls the land, says it will hold a meeting on March 7 to finalize the process for the future redevelopment of LeBreton Flats.
Winkler had been presiding over mediation between partners in the RendezVous LeBreton Group: Senators owner Eugene Melnyk, Trinity Development Group founder John Ruddy and GBA Development and Project Management president Graham Bird.
Melnyk's Capital Sports Management Inc., filed a $700-million lawsuit against Ruddy and Bird in November. Ruddy – also a member of the ownership group of the CFL's Ottawa Redblacks, the United Soccer League's Ottawa Fury and the Ontario Hockey League's Ottawa 67's – responded with a $1-billion counterclaim.
While filing a statement of defence against Melnyk's lawsuit, Bird got the three parties to agree to mediation in early January.