YOUNGSTOWN — City council plans today to vote on authorizing the board of control to finally terminate a tax abatement with the owner of the failed Chill-Can project while a judge agreed to let the 21-acre site be sold at a sheriff’s sale.

The city’s Tax Incentive Review Council recommended July 30 that city officials put an end to the tax abatement with M.J. Joseph Development Corp., parent company of the former Chill-Can project. The abatement deal was signed Dec. 21, 2017.

But the legislation, sponsored by Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, isn’t reaching city council until today.

M.J. Joseph got a $37,736 tax break in 2023 for its 2022 taxes thanks to the 75% 10-year deal. It got similar tax breaks for three years with the TIRC not meeting for two of those years.

M.J. Joseph probably didn’t receive anything this year for 2023 as it owes $43,270 in delinquent property taxes to Mahoning County.

Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled Aug. 22 in favor of Youngstown and MS Consultants Inc., the two lead plaintiffs in a foreclosure case against M.J. Joseph, which walked away from the unfinished project on 21 acres of property on the city’s lower East Side.

Durkin ruled 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 $2,150 to MS and $500 to the city in court costs, and the delinquent taxes.

A sheriff’s sale for the site initially scheduled for Nov. 11 was canceled because three appraisals of the property couldn’t determine its 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. Also, the city owns additional parcels surrounding the location.

The city, MS Consultants and the county treasurer’s office — which is owed the delinquent property taxes — filed a Nov. 8 court motion asking Durkin to order the sheriff to set a sale of the property using the county auditor’s value for the lots, which is $2,069,370.

Durkin ruled Nov. 25 in favor of the city, MS and the treasurer’s office.

But an order to schedule the sale hasn’t been received by the sheriff’s office as of Tuesday, said Sheriff Jerry Greene.

Once that arrives, Greene said a sale date will be scheduled.

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

The unpaid property taxes would come from the highest offer.

The city plans to use the $1.5 million it is owed as well as the fact it owns numerous properties in and around the Chill-Can site to purchase the location, said Lou D’Apolito, city deputy law director, who is heavily involved in this issue.

“We’ve got a dozen or so inquiries about the property from developers,” D’Apolito said. “We plan to use it for economic development. The city wants the property to determine the best use for it.”

If the city obtains the property, it will request formal proposals from developers and choose what it considers the best plan for that location, D’Apolito said.

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 about $18.8 million to build and be in full operation by 2018 to produce the world’s only self-chilling beverage can.

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

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

There are three unfinished buildings at the undeveloped site and no employees.

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.

M.J. Joseph exists only on paper with its Irvine, California, headquarters shuttered.

Since M.J. Joseph’s company’s former attorneys filed requests Sept. 11, 2023, to withdraw from three M.J. lawsuits, likely over nonpayment of fees, the company never hired new legal counsel and ignored court deadlines and hearings. That resulted in the default judgments in favor of the city and MS Consultants on money owed by the company and the foreclosure decision.

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 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 the city and MS.