A walker passes by the 20 Federal Place office building in downtown Youngstown when it was undergoing renovations. A trial involving a former tenant of the building that once housed Strouss’ department store is about to move forward. Today, the front windows of 20 Federal Place feature an expansive mural on the history of the Strouss' department store. .... Staff file photo

YOUNGSTOWN — A court-required mediation failed to resolve a lawsuit filed against Youngstown by Carrier Services Group, the last tenant at the city-owned 20 Federal Place downtown building, with the case set to go to trial over damage caused to the company’s equipment.

The Thursday meeting with mediator John Pfau resulted in an “impasse,” according to a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court filing. A pretrial hearing is scheduled Dec. 11.

The court’s local rules required mediation.

CSG, a telecommunication equipment provider that had a location for 10 years at the now-mothballed 20 Federal Place, is seeking more than $500,000 in damages in the lawsuit filed May 11, 2023, against the city.

When the city conducted a $7.4 million project to remove asbestos and partially demolish the building for potential redevelopment, CSG declined to move its equipment, which was damaged in the project. Two attempts by the city to have firms redevelop the building have failed. In August 2025, $24 million in state and federal historic preservation tax credits for the building were forfeited when a second project failed to materialize.

Stephen Pruneski, CSG’s attorney on this case, wrote in a Nov. 26 filing the “city undertook a wide variety of purposeful and intentional acts to interfere with CSG’s use of the premises and damaged their equipment.”

He wrote the city and its contractor “piled dirt, dust and debris outside the entrance to the leased premises inhibiting the ability for anyone to even enter the leased premises,” the “city allowed construction debris to bust open the entrance” and “interfere with sensitive electronic computer equipment,” cut fiber optic lines, terminated electric service and “proceeded to completely destroy” CSG’s space.

The city or its contractor also took CSG equipment, which Pruneski wrote was “damaged and is valueless and destroyed, converted and/or lost numerous items of equipment.”

Frank Scialdone, hired by the city as an attorney on this case, wrote in a Dec. 8 filing that “testimony shows that throughout the course of the project, the city tried to accommodate Carrier. Eventually, however, Carrier’s equipment interfered with everyone’s work. The city only resorted to self-help to remove Carrier after consultation with the law department. Even then, the city asked all persons involved with the removal of Carrier equipment to use care.”

City officials have said the fiber optic line and the power were cut, and Carrier didn’t notice either for about two weeks and it was more than a week after the equipment was moved to the city’s traffic engineering building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard before the company realized that occurred.

Carrier hasn’t had a valid lease since Sept. 30, 2020, when an old contract expired, and the company failed to renew on a timely basis, Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Magistrate Dennis J. Sarisky ruled Aug. 23, 2023, and Judge Maureen Sweeney upheld Dec. 6, 2023.

Pruneski argued the city accepted payments from the company for renewals for 2021 and 2022 and that Carrier paid yearly and not monthly for nine years.

Invoices for 2021, 2022 and 2023 were given to Carrier by Joyce Gorsky, who had worked for the city as an independent contract assisting with 20 Federal Place tenants.

Sarisky agreed with city officials that only the three-member board of control can renew leases and that wasn’t done with Carrier.

In his decision, Sarisky wrote the city needed to give CSG 30 days’ notice of eviction. The city argues it did so on Aug. 24, 2023.

There were 19 tenants, taking up about 20% of the 332,000-square-foot building before eviction notices were sent in July 2022. Some of the tenants received extensions, including CSG, which stayed in the building the longest.

The evictions occurred because of the project to remove asbestos and partially demolish the building.

In addition to the city, CSG also listed three co-defendants – former Mayor Jamael Tito Brown; Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works; and Jim Murray, the project’s engineer – in the lawsuit.

The city filed for summary judgment to have the case dismissed against it and the three co-defendants on the grounds of statutory and qualified immunity – a common defense used by governments in Ohio that gives them immunity from liability in many cases in which it is performing a government or proprietary function.

Sweeney denied the motions in a June 24, 2025, decision, which the city appealed July 23, 2025, to the 7th District Court of Appeals.

The appeals court ruled on March 25 that Sweeney erred when she didn’t dismiss the three co-defendants from the case, but was correct to reject the city’s immunity claim, albeit for the wrong reason.