YOUNGSTOWN — City officials will let the public tour the site of the failed Chill-Can project this weekend to better understand its condition and future potential.

The city is opening the site’s three buildings — two of which are unfinished — to the public 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Those wanting to tour the site need to enter off Himrod Avenue.

Access will be limited to designated areas of the property to ensure safety. City employees will be at the location for safety and to answer basic questions.

This is the first time the city is permitting the public to visit the former Chill-Can site that was the subject of much controversy and lengthy litigation.

The city obtained possession of nearly all of the 21-acre location on the lower East Side at a Feb. 18, 2025, sheriff’s sale.

No plans have been announced by the city as to what it wants to do with the property.

Mayor Derrick McDowell said, “For too long, our community has seen this property through a negative lens and secondhand information. This open house is all about allowing our community to see it for themselves, to dream alongside one another in full transparency. Community engagement means giving folks a peek inside to begin building trust for its new future.”

The city purchased 86 parcels, a majority of the location, at a 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 Development Corp., Chill-Can’s parent company, in a court decision — with interest, that amount increased to $1,600,900 — as well as the fact that it owns numerous properties in and around the 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.

The city’s board of control approved paying $10,000 on Feb. 26 to a former Chill-Can parent company’s vice president for two parcels at the site of the failed business that weren’t included in the sheriff’s sale.

The city owns 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.

City council in January 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.

Mitchell Joseph claimed when the project broke ground in November 2016, 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.

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

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 delinquent taxes.

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.

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.