YOUNGSTOWN — Three appraisals of the abandoned Chill-Can plant project site couldn’t determine the value of the property on Youngstown’s lower East Side, but the site is scheduled to be sold at a Nov. 11 sheriff’s sale.

A document filed with Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by Sheriff Jerry Greene states the “consensus of the three appraisers” is they are “unable to appraise” the 21-acre site.

The issue, according to the three appraisers, is that some of the 86 parcels on the Chill-Can site are either owned by the city of Youngstown or Scott Berger and the city also owns additional parcels surrounding the buildings at the location.

Documents filed by the appraisers show the city owns 26 parcels on or near the Chill-Can site while Berger owns two small parcels on the location.

Berger used to work for M.J. Joseph Development Corp., the Chill-Can’s parent company. Berger lists the shuttered M.J. Joseph location in Irvine, California, as his address, according to the county auditor’s website.

Judge John M. Durkin of common pleas court ruled Aug. 22 in favor of Youngstown and MS Consultants Inc., the two lead plaintiffs in the foreclosure case against M.J. Joseph, which walked away from the undeveloped 21-acre property.

Durkin ruled M.J. Joseph owes $1.5 million to Youngstown plus 3% interest from Nov. 21, 2022, and $322,908 to MS plus 18% interest since Oct. 5, 2018, as well as $2,150 to MS and $500 to the city in court costs.

M.J. Joseph also was ordered to pay the county treasurer for delinquent taxes, assessments, interest and penalties. M.J. Joseph owes $22,814 in delinquent taxes to the county, and hasn’t paid the $20,456 it owes this year, according to the auditor’s website.

The auditor’s website lists the Chill-Can’s property value at about $2 million.

The city wants to buy the property at the sheriff’s sale, said Lou D’Apolito, a Youngstown deputy law director.

“I know there was a problem determining the value of the internal lots,” he said. “I thought they’d give it a zero appraisal and use the rest of the lots for the total appraisal. We have to figure out what’s next. The city owns a number of lots on the site.”

Asked about the sheriff’s sale, D’Apolito said, “I believe it will go forward. They use two-thirds of the appraised value for the opening bid so that has to be worked out.”

The attempted appraisals were done by David G. Klacik, Maureen Cline-Skowron and Dennis D. Gonatas.

Bill Cappabianca, the sheriff’s chief deputy, said he has not seen documentation with the sale date.

The document signed by Greene lists Nov. 11 and Nov. 26 as the sheriff’s sale dates.

Cappabianca said two dates are given in case no one seeks to buy the property on the first date and typically it’s all done on that first date with the second used as a backup.

The sales are done online through RealAuction.com.

At one time, the proposed Chill-Can plant was expected to lead an economic revival of the city’s lower East Side, but the project never materialized.

The city will use the $1.5 million it won in the default judgment — and that it owns numerous properties in and around the Chill-Can site — to its advantage when it comes to the sheriff’s sale, D’Apolito said.

The $1.5 million is water and wastewater grants given to the company by the city that a judge ruled had to be paid back.

The city also won by default a $733,481 court sanction — $414,948 the city spent on acquiring 15 properties bought for the failed project, which included relocation expenses, and $318,533 in demolition and abatement costs.

The money owed to MS Consultants is for unpaid design work on the supposed project.

The unpaid property taxes have to be paid from the sale of the property. But if the city doesn’t exceed that and the $1.5 million it is owed, MS would get nothing.

There’s also a valid $2.58 million default judgment from Richard A. Briskey, a Sunbury businessman, against Mitchell Joseph, the head of M.J. Joseph, as well as that company and three other affiliated businesses in a breach-of-contract lawsuit. Durkin ruled that Briskey’s interests are behind the city and MS.

Joseph, who also owned M.J. Joseph’s sister companies, claimed when the project broke ground in November 2016 that the facility would cost about $18.8 million and be in full operation by 2018 to produce the world’s only self-chilling beverage can.

M.J. Joseph was required under an agreement with the city to construct four buildings and create 237 jobs by Aug. 31. 2021.

There are three unfinished buildings at the undeveloped site.

Mitchell Joseph filed May 10 for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Central Division of California with his wife, Susan Jo Joseph, and Joseph Co. International Inc. A judge dismissed the case July 11.

Since Brian Kopp and Justin Markota, M.J. Joseph’s company’s former attorneys, filed requests Sept. 11 to withdraw from three M.J. lawsuits, likely over nonpayment of fees, the company never hired new legal counsel and ignored court deadlines and hearings. That resulted in the default judgments in favor of the city and MS Consultants on money owed by the company and the latest foreclosure decision.

The foreclosure case was initiated by MS Consultants Inc. on July 12, 2023, to seize M.J. Joseph’s property after winning a lower court case on a breach-of-contract lawsuit.

The 7th District Court of Appeals on Feb. 20 dismissed M.J. Joseph’s appeal of Judge Maureen Sweeney’s March 20, 2023, ruling that the company breached a contract for MS to do design work on the supposed project and owed $322,908.

M.J. Joseph ignored that appeal, leading to its dismissal.

Sweeney on May 8 also closed Youngstown’s case against M.J. Joseph after awarding the city $2.23 million in sanctions and damages. Of that amount, $1.5 million is water and wastewater grants given the company by the city and the rest is the $733,481 sanction.

Youngstown filed a $2.8 million lawsuit June 17, 2021, contending M.J. Joseph failed to live up to its promises to develop the site.

In a March 29, 2021, certified letter, the city informed Joseph he had 60 days to construct a number of buildings and hire about 150 workers or it would file a lawsuit.

Knowing the city’s lawsuit was coming, M.J. Joseph and Joseph Manufacturing Co. Inc., a sister company, filed a May 24, 2021, lawsuit against Youngstown seeking to stop it from reclaiming the $1.5 million in grants and contested the city’s legal rights to money, property and buildings.