YOUNGS-TOWN The Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office has scheduled the sale of the Chill-Can property for Feb. 18 with March 4 as a secondary date if the site where a proposed $18.8 million project on Youngstown’s lower East Side doesn’t receive a minimum offer for purchase.

Sheriff Jerry Greene confirmed the dates on the sale of the foreclosed 21-acre site that is largely undeveloped.

The property will be sold online through the RealAuction.com website.

A sheriff’s sale for the site initially was scheduled Nov. 11, but was canceled because three appraisals of the property could not determine the value.

The appraisers wrote that 26 of the 86 parcels on the site are owned by the city, and two are owned by Scott Berger, who used to work for M.J. Joseph Development Corp., parent company of the former Chill-Can project.

Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled Nov. 25 in favor of Youngstown and MS Consultants Inc., the two lead plaintiffs in the foreclosure case against M.J. Joseph, as well as the county treasurer’s office, which is owed delinquent property taxes, that a sheriff’s sale could be held using the county auditor’s value for the lots, which is $2,069,370.

The opening bid for the property is $1,379,566, two-thirds the price of the auditor’s value.

The $43,270 in unpaid property taxes would be provided to the treasurer’s office from the highest offer.

Durkin ruled Aug. 22 that M.J. Joseph owes $1.5 million to Youngstown plus 3% interest from Nov. 21, 2022, and $322,908 to MS plus 18% interest since Oct. 5, 2018, as well as $2,650 in court fees to the two and the delinquent taxes.

The city plans to use the $1.5 million it is owed to purchase the location and then eventually sell it for an economic development project, said Lou D’Apolito, deputy law director. The city also owns numerous properties in and around the Chill-Can site

The city is owed the $1.5 million for water and wastewater grants it gave M.J. Joseph to develop the property.

MS is owed the $322,908 for unpaid design work on the failed project.

The city had envisioned the plant as leading an economic revival of the lower East Side.

Mitchell Joseph, the head of M.J. Joseph and its sister companies, claimed when the project broke ground in November 2016 that the site would cost $18.8 million to build and be in full operation by 2018 producing the world’s only self-chilling beverage can.

M.J. Joseph was required under an agreement with the city to construct four buildings and create 237 jobs by Aug. 31, 2021.

Three unfinished buildings and no employees are at the abandoned site.

The city and MS won default judgments in court earlier this year after M.J. Joseph’s former attorneys withdrew more than a year ago from lawsuits and the company – which exists on paper only – ignored court deadlines and hearings and never hired other lawyers.

That resulted in the default judgments in favor of the city and MS Consultants on money owed by the company and the foreclosure decision.

Mitchell Joseph filed May 10 for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Central Division of California with his wife, Susan Jo Joseph, and Joseph Co. International Inc. A judge dismissed the case July 11.

The foreclosure case was initiated by MS Consultants Inc. 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 dismissed M.J. Joseph’s appeal of a March 20, 2023, decision by Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court 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 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 the $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, D’Apolito said.

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.

There’s also a valid $2.58 million default judgment from Richard A. Briskey, a Sunbury businessman, against Mitchell Joseph, M.J. Joseph and three other affiliated businesses in a breach-of-contract lawsuit. Durkin ruled that Briskey’s interests are behind those of the city and MS.