YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s board of control today is expected to approve paying $10,000 to a former Chill-Can parent company’s vice president for two parcels at the site of the failed business.

The two North Lane Avenue parcels, owned by Scott Berger of Irvine, California, on the Chill-Can property on the lower East Side were not included as part of a Feb. 18, 2025, sheriff’s sale of the 21-acre site.

Scott Berger of Irvine, Calif., a former M.J. Joseph Development Corp. vice president, purchased both tiny parcels on Aug. 31, 2015, for $3,000, according to the Mahoning County auditor’s website. One parcel is currently appraised at $1,600 and the other at $700.

With this purchase, the city will own all but two parcels on the Chill-Can site. Those two parcels are owned by Mitchell Joseph, the head of M.J. Joseph and its sister companies, who abandoned the undeveloped project in 2020.

The city purchased 86 parcels, a majority of the location, at a Feb. 18, 2025, sheriff’s sale for $1,379,580, which was two-thirds of the county auditor’s value of the property.

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.

The city already owned 26 parcels before the sheriff’s sale.

City council last month amended a contract with the Western Reserve Port Authority to permit it to seek buyers for a number of city-owned properties, including the Chill-Can site, for potential development.

The contract pays the WRPA 5% of the gross transaction price of any sales. The contract has been in place for more than five years, but the amendment spelled out specific locations. City officials say the WRPA has greater flexibility to sell the property than they do because of restrictions under state law.

Joseph 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.

There are three unfinished buildings at the location.

Joseph walked away from the project in 2020 and abandoned his legal fight in early 2024.

COURT DECISION

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John M. Durkin ruled Nov. 25, 2024, 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, 2025, 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 accurately didn’t expect M.J. Joseph to pay, used most of the $1.5 million, which grew to $1,600,900 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 Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney 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 a $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.

NEW VENTURE

Joseph is head of Gold Camel Beverage Consultancy LLC, which contends on its website “provides the insights and guidance needed to succeed” to start-up companies and established brands “seeking innovative growth strategies” in beverage branding. The company logo includes the words Chill-Can, Pepsi and NASA – the latter twice – as well as the Pepsi logo.

Under what is referred to as “a legacy of excellence and recognition,” the website brags about Mitchell’s Chill-Can “demonstrating how cutting-edge technology, strategic barriers to entry, and intellectual property can disrupt and dominate markets.”

It also states: “Mitchell’s relentless pursuit of innovation led to the development of what many consider the ‘holy grail’ of the beverage industry, the Self-Chilling Can. This cutting-edge technology, achieved after two decades and a $100 million investment, enabled beverages to chill themselves without refrigeration. This breakthrough ultimately resulted in the creation of the Blue Pepsi Can, a milestone in beverage history.”