WARREN, Ohio – A Trumbull County Common Pleas Court has given Warren Steel Holdings LLC three days to either satisfy more than $100 million in liens against its assets or have them sold at auction.
Judge Sarah Thomas Kovoor on Friday ordered that unless the company comes up with $103 million it owes Miami-based Optima Acquisitions LLC, plus back taxes owed to the Trumbull County treasurer, the former steel mill will be foreclosed and “sold free of the interests of all parties in this action.”
Optima filed a motion April 9 seeking judgment on the matter.
The court is expected to issue an order of sale directing the Trumbull County sheriff, or an authorized private seller, to appraise, advertise and then sell the property, according to the law and court order.
Should the property not sell on the first sale, the court could order a reappraisal of the site and establish a new minimum bid for a second sale, court documents say.
The court has not set a date for a sheriff’s auction, documents show.
Optima filed the foreclosure complaint June 27, 2025, against Warren Steel, the troubled steel producer that acquired the former Copperweld Steel – then known as CSC Ltd. – out of bankruptcy in 2001. According to the complaint, Optima said it tendered a $15 million loan to Warren Steel in 2014 as the steel mill prepared to resume operations. Warren Steel pledged the 360-acre site and its buildings as collateral.
Warren Steel also owes Optima $88.2 million on a secondary mortgage on the property, the court found.
The land and buildings span both Champion and Warren Townships. According to records from the Trumbull County Auditor’s Office, Warren Steel owes $46,500 in back property taxes on the Warren Township parcel and another $49,812 on the Champion Township property. Together, the auditor’s office appraises the land and buildings at $1.6 million.
Proceeds from any sale after payment to the treasurer and court costs would go to satisfy Optima’s $15 million first position lien, while the $88.2 million mortgage would be considered second. A third lien held by Motion Industries Inc. would also be recognized, and an undetermined amount would be paid from any sale of the property.
Any buyer would also be restricted by a court-approved environmental covenant that imposes limitations, notice requirements and access rights for regulators.
The site was also named as part of a complex international money-laundering scheme five years ago that involved oligarchs from Ukraine. Warren Steel was forced to shut its doors in 2016, leaving in its wake environmental issues at the site.