Senators’ downtown arena plans might be on thin ice

OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators’ plan to build a new downtown arena could be in jeopardy.

The National Capital Commission, the Crown corporation which is responsible for the land at LeBreton Flats, said on Thursday the Senators-backed RendezVous LeBreton Group advised the NCC on Nov. 8 that they had not been able to resolve internal partnership issues.

The NCC says it will proceed with the next steps with RendezVous or establish a new process for developing the land at their January 2019 meeting.

Senators owner Eugene Melnyk and Trinity Group executive chair John Ruddy, also a partowner of the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Redblacks, are the primary partners in the RendezVous LeBreton Group.

“As I said in the (NCC) board meeting, they have to get their act together plain and simple,” Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, a non-voting member of the NCC, said at a news conference on Thursday. “Otherwise, I think we’re going to have to move on in January.”

The Senators and Trinity Group did not immediately respond for comment.

The NCC announced in January that it had picked RendezVous for a development deal at LeBreton Flats, an area of underdeveloped land a few blocks southwest of Parliament Hill, that included a new National Hockey League arena for the Sens as well as housing developments. The Sens have struggled to fill their arena in Kanata.