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Melnyk’s RendezVous LeBreton Group, which won preferred bidder status to develop the valuable land west of downtown, has been in negotiations with the National Capital Commission. The federal agency chose the RendezVous bid in a April 2016 and talks have been going on since then.

Formal discussions will eventually turn to impacts on the City of Ottawa and how much the project could cost the city. The issues are varied, from public transit to parkland maintenance. RendezVous could also get multimillion-dollar tax and fee breaks from the city to clean up the contaminated soil at LeBreton Flats.

It’s unclear what kind of requests RendezVous might make to city hall.

There have been some discussions at the staff level, “but I haven’t been involved in those,” Watson said.

According to Watson, who’s also a non-voting member of the NCC board, the hockey bosses are eager to push the massive project forward.

“I think the NHL and the Senators would like to see it go faster than it is, but my view is let’s get this right,” Watson said. “It’s a complicated deal in terms of who’s going to be responsible for what. I gave them an update on my undertaking to bring a list of principles in terms of our negotiations on the property later this fall. I told them I’d keep them posted when we table that with council.”

That list of principles, which is expected to be the city’s opening position in negotiations, should come to council by October.

“If I get council’s approval in terms of the principles, that would give us the formal mandate to sit down and negotiate and they seem fine with that,” Watson said.