YOUNGSTOWN — City council approved an additional $75,000 payment to a consulting firm helping with the sale and redevelopment of its 20 Federal Place building, which a city official said is progressing well.

“We are close to the finish line, very close,” Stephanie Gilchrist, economic development director, told city council Wednesday.

She added: “We’re looking for the project to begin in the fall of this year.”

The city’s board of control approved a nonbinding memorandum of understanding on Dec. 18 with Bluelofts Inc., a Dallas, Texas, redevelopment firm, “not to extend beyond Oct. 15, 2025, to finalize a ground lease agreement and P3 (public-private partnership) structure and financially close the bonds and commence construction.”

Under the proposal, Bluelofts is teaming with Madrone Community Foundation of Berkeley, California, which would own the building through a nonprofit charitable organization. The city would retain ownership of the ground underneath the building.

Bluelofts is proposing a $57 million project at the building, but will use the results of a recently completed market feasibility study to finalize development plans.

City council on Wednesday authorized the board of control to enter into another $75,000 contract with Steadfast City Economic & Community Partners of St. Louis, Missouri, to continue assisting Youngstown with the potential sale and redevelopment of 20 Federal Place, a nine-story city-owned building at 20 W. Federal St. downtown.

Gilchrist said Steadfast has worked with Bluelofts and city officials “to make sure that the project is successful and that everything they need they have so we can move forward with the project.”

Steadfast has already received $283,800 at $215 an hour for providing technical assistance and strategic council for the proposed project with another $75,000 contract approved in October.

Steadfast started working with the city on the project in 2020 after a $40,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant was obtained to provide technical and marketing assistance. The city then signed its first contract in September 2021 with Steadfast.

Bluelofts’ most recent proposal in December, which could change based on the study, is to build 100 apartments to house 180 people in one-to-three-bedroom units with 43 of the apartments being affordable / workforce housing at 80% median income rent as well as 30,000 square feet of commercial space, a small wellness center, and e-commerce and mini-warehouse space on the first two floors for smaller businesses.

The project also calls for 62 parking spaces in the basement.

Bluelofts’ proposal is to start construction in October and be finished around June 2027.

The building has $10 million in state historic tax credits and $14 million in federal historic tax credits that expire at the end of 2025 if a project at the building isn’t started by then.

Also Wednesday, council voted to permit the board of control to pay $50,000 to Tokio Marine, the city’s insurance company, to cover its deductible in an ongoing lawsuit from Carrier Services Group, the last tenant at 20 Federal Place, which is suing the city for more than $500,000 for damage to its property and equipment when it was evicted from the building.

The case is ongoing, but the city has to pay the deductible to the insurance company for legal fees.

Council voted Wednesday to repeal its Dec. 4 decision to terminate a tax abatement with the former owner of the failed Chill-Can project.

The city submitted the winning — and only — offer to buy the property at a Feb. 18 sheriff’s sale for $1,379,580.

The city used a $1.5 million court decision in its lawsuit against M.J. Joseph Development Corp., the Chill-Can’s parent company, in a foreclosure case to obtain the property.

The city is still finalizing the purchase of the property, which is complicated by there being 86 parcels at the site with 26 previously owned by the city and two by a former M.J. Joseph official.

Repealing the abatement will permit whoever buys the property from the city to get as much as three years on the 10-year tax abatement, said Jason Small, a city senior assistant law director.

“This is essentially going to limit future tax liability for any future purchase,” he said.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown has said he envisions the property being converted into an industrial park.

Mitchell Joseph, the head of M.J. Joseph Development and its sister companies, claimed when the Chill-Can project broke ground in November 2016 that it would cost $18.8 million to build.

City officials said at the time that the project would lead to the revival of the lower East Side.

Joseph had said the facility would be in operation by 2018 producing the world’s only self-chilling beverage can with four buildings and 237 jobs by Aug. 31, 2021.

There are only three unfinished buildings and no employees at the abandoned site.

Joseph walked away from the project four years ago and abandoned his legal fight nearly two years ago.