Invest Ottawa chose Cinespace out of three companies that submitted bids to build the stage. The two sides started negotiating at the end of last year but those talks fell apart.
Now Invest Ottawa is going back to the other two firms who submitted bids to see if they are still interested in working on the project.
Blair Patacairk, an advisor with Invest Ottawa, declined to discuss the details of negotiations that led to Cinespace pulling out.
“What they were proposing, we just couldn’t come to a good meeting spot on it,” he said. “So we’ve gone our separate ways.”
Mr. Patacairk hopes this is just a temporary hiccup in its plan for the film and TV industry, a key plank in its plans for creating more jobs in the city.
Invest Ottawa officials say the sound stage is needed to grow the city’s burgeoning film industry. The City of Ottawa, in committing $1.5 million to the project, hopes public money will be enough of an incentive to bring previously uninterested film studios to the city.
The stage’s location has still yet to be decided.
Mr. Patacairk said Cinespace wanted to build the sound stage on land the city plans to develop as a future home for Invest Ottawa, the Bayview Yards west of downtown. But the final location will be left up to firm that decides to build it, he said.
Officials with Cinespace did not immediately return requests for comment.
Mr. Patacairk said he’s optimistic they’ll be able to reach a deal with one of the two previous bidders. If not, though, he said they will likely go back and re-work the request for proposals they issued last year.
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