YOUNGSTOWN — Four months after submitting the winning — and only — offer to buy the former Chill-Can property, the city still doesn’t own the site.

But it will take another step forward today with city council voting on an ordinance to declare that “it is in the public interest for the city of Youngstown to acquire the tax-delinquent real property … for the public purpose of redeveloping the property or otherwise rendering it suitable for productive, tax-paying use.”

The ordinance also declares that the city “may purchase or acquire title to such eligible delinquent land and the title shall pass free and clear of the lien for delinquent taxes.”

Jason Small, a senior assistant city law director, said, “This is a statutory function that city council has to serve to take over the property. It’s a step in the process.”

The city’s purchase of the property is complicated by the 86 parcels at the site, with 26 previously owned by the city and two by a former M.J. Joseph official, Small said.

“We’ll have it fairly soon,” Small said. “Most of the documents have been drafted. It’s taking so long because of all of the parcels.”

The sale also needs final approval of the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Small said.

Asked if the sale would be done in a couple of months, Small said, “I can’t put an estimated time, but we’re hoping sooner than that.”

The opening bid for the 21-acre property at the Feb. 18 sheriff’s sale was $1,379,580, two-thirds the price of the Mahoning County auditor’s value. The city submitted that minimum bid.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said he wants to convert the property into an industrial park.

The city had envisioned the plant as leading an economic revival of the lower East Side.

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

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’s only three unfinished buildings and no employees at the abandoned site.

Joseph walked away from the project about five years ago and abandoned his legal fight a year ago.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John M. Durkin ruled Nov. 25 in favor of Youngstown and MS Consultants Inc., the two lead plaintiffs in the foreclosure case against M.J. Joseph — which exists only on paper — as well as for the county treasurer’s office, which is owed $43,270 in delinquent property taxes, that a sheriff’s sale could be held using the county auditor’s value for the lots.

Durkin ruled Aug. 22 that M.J. Joseph owes $1.5 million to Youngstown and $322,908 to MS, as well as $2,650 in court fees to the two and the delinquent taxes.

The city, which didn’t expect M.J. Joseph to pay, used most of the $1.5 million it is owed as well as that it owns numerous properties in and around the Chill-Can site to purchase the location.

The city is owed the $1.5 million for water and wastewater grants it gave M.J. Joseph in 2017 to develop the property.

MS is owed the $322,908 for unpaid design work on the supposed project.

A sheriff’s sale for the site initially was scheduled Nov. 11, but was canceled because three appraisals of the property could not determine the value.

The appraisers wrote that 26 of the 86 parcels on the site are owned by the city and two are owned by Scott Berger, who used to work for M.J. Joseph.

The foreclosure case was initiated by MS 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, 2024, dismissed M.J. Joseph’s appeal of a March 20, 2023, decision by Judge Maureen Sweeney of common pleas court who determined 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, 2024, 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 related to city expenses to acquire 15 properties for the project including relocation expenses, and demolition and asbestos abatement costs.

Even though the city was awarded sanctions, it did not pursue them because of M.J. Joseph’s inability to pay.

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.