Youngstown is now the official owner of the failed Chill-Can property on the city’s lower East Side. A judge approved the filing of the deed from the sheriff’s sale, where Youngstown officials purchased the 21-acre site for $1,379,580. Staff file photo

YOUNGSTOWN — More than four years after filing a lawsuit to obtain the failed Chill-Can property, Youngstown finally owns the site.

“It’s a done deal,” said Jason Small, a senior assistant city law director. “The judge approved the filing of the sheriff’s deed.”

The city will pay some fees this week on the 21-acre site, Small said.

The city purchased the location on the lower East Side at a Feb. 18 sheriff’s sale with the minimum purchase price of $1,379,580, two-thirds of the Mahoning County auditor’s value of the property.

Finalizing the sale was complicated by the 86 parcels at the site, with 26 already owned by the city and two by a former official with M.J. Joseph Development Corp., the Chill-Can’s parent company, Small said.

The city used most of the $1.5 million it is owed by M.J. Joseph in a court decision — with interest, that amount increased to $1,600,900 — as well as that it owns numerous properties in and around the Chill-Can site to purchase it. The city submitted the only bid for the property at the sheriff’s sale.

Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ordered the sale be “approved and confirmed” in a July 2 judgment entry.

He also ordered the city to receive the property’s title “and a writ of possession is hereby issued to place the purchaser in possession of said property.”

Durkin wrote that “all unpaid taxes, assessments, special assessments, penalties, interest and charges that are due and owing on the property shall remain on the property as good and valid liens and in the event the property is later sold, the taxes, assessments, special assessments, penalties, interest and charges shall be paid in full.”

M.J. owes $46,231 in delinquent taxes to the county.

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

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

The city had envisioned the business as leading an economic revival of the area with Joseph saying 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.

But there are three unfinished buildings and no employees at the abandoned location.

Joseph walked away from the project about five years ago and abandoned his legal fight in early 2024.

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 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, which grew to $1.69 million with interest, to purchase the site.

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.

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.