YOUNGSTOWN — City officials have filed an appeal of a judge’s ruling denying their requested dismissal of a lawsuit by Carrier Services Group, the final tenant at the city-owned 20 Federal Place downtown building that seeks more than $500,000 in damages.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney on June 24 rejected an Oct. 30 summary judgment motion in this case by the city and three co-defendants: Mayor Jamael Tito Brown; Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works; and Jim Murray, the project’s engineer.

Attorney Sarah S. Chiappone, who represents the city and the co-defendants, on July 23 filed a notice to appeal Sweeney’s decision to the 7th District Court of Appeals.

Chiappone wrote the appeals court should consider whether Sweeney was correct in denying the city and the government employees statutory and qualified immunity.

Statutory and qualified immunity is a common defense used by governments in Ohio that gives them immunity from liability in many court cases in which it is performing a government or proprietary function.

Sweeney wrote Shasho decided to cut the electric power to CSG’s premises as well as fiber optic lines and “destroy and / or remove the leased premises,” while Brown “condoned and authorized” those actions, and Murray told subcontractors to follow the directives during a project at 20 Federal Place.

Sweeney wrote: “As such, there are issues of fact which prevent the court from summarily concluding that the actions of the individual employees of the city did not violate statutory constitutional rights and are protected by qualified immunity.”

In Sweeney’s June 24 decision, she wrote she “must deny each of the motions for summary judgment. Material issues of fact remain in dispute that bar the court from granting any of the motions filed by” the city and the three other co-defendants.

Summary judgment seeks to end a case before it goes to trial on the grounds that there is no genuine dispute of facts and “that reasonable minds viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to (one side) can only reach a conclusion adverse to the party against whom the motion for summary judgment is made,” Sweeney wrote.

The city states it properly evicted CSG after Sweeney ruled Dec. 6, 2023, that it was permitted to so and any damages that occurred were the responsibility of the company because it refused to remove items while a $7.4 million remediation project occurs at the 20 W. Federal St. building.

Because of the work, the city removed and damaged CSG’s fiber optic lines, computer servers and equipment when the company wouldn’t remove them. CSG has said the damage exceeded $500,000.

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, Magistrate Dennis J. Sarisky ruled Aug. 23, 2023, and Sweeney upheld Dec. 6, 2023.

The lawsuit, filed May 11, 2023, seeks damages against the city and the three other co-defendants.

The city in May paid $50,000 to Tokio Marine, the city’s insurance company, to cover its deductible in this ongoing lawsuit.

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

The city permitted Carrier to remain the longest of any of the tenants, but sought to evict it Jan. 3, 2023.

The evictions occurred because the city spent $7.4 million – largely funded by a $6.96 million state grant – to remove asbestos and partially demolish the building in order to have it redeveloped. That project was finished almost a year ago.

The city purchased the building in November 2004 after Phar-Mor, a national retail store company, went out of business. The property was the Phar-Mor Centre, the company’s corporate headquarters. Before that, it was the flagship location of Strouss’ department store for several decades.

The city’s board of control approved a nonbinding memorandum of understanding on Dec. 18 with Bluelofts Inc., a Dallas, Texas, redevelopment firm, “not to extend beyond Oct. 15, 2025, to finalize a ground lease agreement and P3 (public-private partnership) structure and financially close the bonds and commence construction.”

Under the proposal, Bluelofts is teaming with Madrone Community Foundation of Berkeley, California, which would own the building through a nonprofit charitable organization. The city would retain ownership of the ground underneath the building.

Bluelofts proposed a $57 million project at the building, but will use the results of a market feasibility study to finalize development plans.

Bluelofts’ most-recent public proposal in December, which could change based on the study, is to build 100 apartments to house 180 people in one-to-three-bedroom units with 43 of the apartments being affordable / workforce housing at 80% median income rent as well as 30,000 square feet of commercial space, a small wellness center, and e-commerce and mini-warehouse space on the first two floors for smaller businesses.

Bluelofts’ proposal is to start construction in October and be finished around June 2027.

An updated proposal is supposed to be presented to city council in September.

The building has $10 million in state historic tax credits and $14 million in federal historic tax credits that expire at the end of 2025 if a project at the building isn’t started by then.