YOUNGSTOWN — A developer is interested in a site on Exal Court in the Salt Springs Road Business Park, which is why the administration is asking city council to approve legislation to spend up to $1.95 million for sanitary sewer improvements for it.

The request was the source of questions and criticism by some on city council because the administration said at an April 15 meeting that it wanted to make the location “shovel-ready” for a potential user.

Finance Director Kyle Miasek told council’s community planning and economic development committee Tuesday a potential group of investors is interested in the 12.1-acre site for redevelopment, with possible companies going into the location, which is zoned light industrial. The developer approached the city about six months ago about the site, Miasek said.

“When we have someone come to the table, they need utilities,” Miasek said.

Miasek also said he expects the cost for a pump station for sanitary sewer improvements would be less than $1.95 million, and it would take about six years to recoup the improvement costs through water and wastewater fees and income tax revenue.

At the April 15 meeting, administration officials insisted a project was not in place for the location.

Asked to further explain Tuesday, DeMaine Kitchen, community planning and economic development director, said the city has a developer — Top Property Holdings LLC of North Lima — but not a project. Kitchen said the city doesn’t know what businesses Top Property is working with or seeking to work with for the Exal Court site, but the concept is to develop up to 200,000 square feet of buildings at the location.

“There will probably be multiple users for that site and possibly multiple users for each building,” Kitchen said. “We don’t have a project and we don’t know what the project is, but we have a developer interested and we’re confident we’ll find an industrial company to occupy the space.”

Top Property developed the 45-acre North Jackson Commerce Park that landed its first tenant, aluminum manufacturer Shapes Unlimited, earlier this year at an 80,000-square-foot facility.

“We’re hoping to duplicate in North Jackson at Salt Springs,” Kitchen said.

Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward and community planning and economic development committee chairman, said he didn’t know why the administration didn’t discuss the interested developer when questioned at the April 15 meeting.

Oliver said Tuesday: “They talk about transparency and accountability, but don’t provide either. Why not tell us last month about this when we’ve known for six months?”

Councilman Pat Kelly, D-5th Ward, said, “I know you can’t tip your hand, but you’re asking us to spend $1.9 million without us knowing what is coming in.”

The committee agreed to forward the request to spend up to $1.95 million for the pump station to council for consideration at its May 20 meeting.

CHILL-CAN

Kitchen said at Tuesday’s committee meeting that the city is looking at seeking proposals to develop the site of the failed Chill-Can project.

The city let the public tour the 21-acre site on the lower East Side April 25 and 26.

Kitchen said there’s “a lot of interest, as you can all imagine. Some, we’re still vetting. There’s a lot of ideas I’ll say that came out of that open house. What we would like to do with council’s support and obviously the mayor’s blessing, we’re hopeful to put a plan together to do RFPs (requests for proposals) to see who’s really serious about a potential project there. We have a lot of interest from different sectors, different ranges across the board. But there’s nothing imminent.”

Kitchen added: “That is still a high priority for us. We’re actively seeking end users for that.”

The former Chill-Can site was the subject of much controversy and lengthy litigation. The city obtained possession of nearly all of the 21-acre 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 Development Corp., the Chill-Can’s parent company, 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 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.

After that 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 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.

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 take place 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.