YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The city’s Board of Control approved agreements with an Erie, Pa., firm to conduct appraisals for two properties the city is looking to acquire – including two parcels owned by Mitchel Joseph, Joseph Co. International CEO and chairman, at the proposed Chill Can site.
At a meeting Thursday, the board’s members – Mayor Derrick McDowell, Law Director Adam Buente and Finance Director Kyle Miasek approved paying Sammartino, Stout & Lo Presti Inc. $3,000 to appraise the two East Side parcels owned by Joseph and another $4,000 to appraise the former Anthony’s on the River property, 15 Oak Hill Ave.
“We’re hoping to work with both of the property owners to buy the properties from them,” Buente said.
In both cases, the firm is being requested to conduct the appraisals “to develop an opinion of fair market value for a total take,” according to city documents.
Nearly a decade ago, Joseph Co. announced plans to develop a manufacturing/research and development campus at property on the East Side that the city assembled and acquired for the project. The project never came to fruition, and the city – after foreclosing on the property owned by M.J. Joseph Development Co. – acquired most of the project site at a February 2025 sheriff’s sale. That did not include the two parcels held by Joseph personally.
“We could only foreclose against the corporate entity,” Buente said. “There’s these two little parcels that [Mitchell Joseph] still owns that we’re taking by – or starting to take by – eminent domain for purposes of just getting all that organized into one plat.”
City officials received several ideas for the property during an open house held at the site in late April, McDowell said. “I would say five or six inquiries came from the recent open house,” he remarked.
The city has received inquiries regarding the property for projects ranging from manufacturing to sports facilities, said DeMaine Kitchen, the city’s director of community planning and economic development.
The city is looking at acquiring the former Anthony’s on the River property – owned by Two Bridges – because it is needed for the process of taking down the Marshall Street dam, one of three Mahoning River dams in the city that Youngstown plans to remove.
“We need it for staging and to just have access to the dam,” Kitchen said.
Approximately five contractors responded to the city’s request for qualifications, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works. The goal is to get a contract negotiated and awarded by mid-July, with physical work on the projects getting underway in 2028.
“It’s a design-build type of thing, so there’s quite a bit of design work,” as well as permitting that has to be approved, Shasho said.
Both agreements call for the appraisals to be completed within 60 days of receipt of the signed letter of engagement. Buente said the city was hoping to have them completed as soon as possible to initiate eminent domain proceedings, if necessary, which can take up to a year to go through.
“We’re hoping that doing this formally signals that we’re initiating the eminent domain process, and we’re hoping that starts a conversation where we can work with the property owners to get the properties,” he said.