YOUNGSTOWN — City council will consider requests Wednesday by the administration to authorize the payment of an additional $75,000 to a consulting firm helping with the sale and redevelopment of its 20 Federal Place building and repeal the termination of a tax abatement at the failed Chill-Can site.

The $75,000 contract is with Steadfast City Economic & Community Partners of St. Louis 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.

Steadfast already has received $283,800 at $215 per 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 20 Federal Place 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.

The board of control approved a nonbinding memorandum of understanding 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 market feasibility study to finalize development plans.

Steadfast’s “involvement with the 20 Federal project has sped up as we work with Bluelofts,” city Finance Director Kyle Miasek said. “They traveled here to do a tour of the building. Part of that is travel expenses. As this process moves forward, we rely on their expertise. It’s been money well spent.”

Also council will consider paying $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.

CHILL-CAN

City council also will consider Wednesday repealing its Dec. 4 action 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.

Jason Small, a city senior assistant law director, said voting to repeal “preserves the abatement for the future purchaser of the property. It limits the taxes assessed currently. We’re tying to save tax liability.”

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, said 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.

Council also will vote Wednesday on updating an ordinance to expand real property tax exemptions for the construction and remodeling of residential, commercial and industrial structures.

Among the changes are extending 75% tax abatements for residential projects from 12 years to 15 years. Also, 15-year, 75% tax abatements would be offered to new commercial and industrial structures or remodeling of those buildings at a cost of at least $50,000.