YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The city’s Board of Control on Thursday will consider paying $10,000 for two parcels at the Chill Can site on the city’s East Side that are owned by one of the failed venture’s former employees.
According to a BOC agenda released Wednesday, the board has been asked to approve a purchase agreement for two lots owned by Scott Berger, a former vice president at M.J. Joseph Development Co.
The two parcels were not included in a sheriff’s sale conducted a year ago in which the city acquired the land through a credit bid of $1.379 million. The lots are integral to the site because they extend into one of the three unfinished buildings at the location.
The sheriff’s auction, held on Feb. 18, 2025, consisted of 86 parcels – all of which were owned by M.J. Joseph Development. The city was the sole bidder for the property after it won a prolonged legal battle against the California company and its then-CEO, Mitchell Joseph.
A Mahoning County Common Pleas Court approved the sale in July 2025.
Data from the Mahoning County Auditor’s Office show that Berger acquired two parcels totaling just less than a quarter of an acre along Lane Avenue from Ted Terlesky on Aug. 31, 2015.
The land was acquired more than a year before Joseph announced in October 2016 his intention to build an $18.8 million campus dedicated to the production of self-chilling cans at the site.
Berger paid $3,000 apiece for the parcels, according to auditor’s records, and no tax delinquencies are listed on either property. One parcel is appraised at $700, and the second is appraised at $1,600.
The parcels extend directly through the middle of one of the buildings – an aluminum warehouse-like structure on the west side of North Lane Avenue. The building is closer to the northern entrance of the property along Oak Street.
With the acquisition, the city would control all of the acreage at the site with the exception of two vacant parcels that are still owned personally by Mitchell Joseph.
Auditor’s documents show that Joseph owns two small contiguous vacant parcels – they total just one-quarter of an acre – along North Lane Avenue at the southern end of the property. Records show Joseph purchased the first lot at 23 North Lane Ave. on Feb. 17, 2016, for $3,000, from the trustee of Elizabeth Penn. He acquired the second parcel from Joyce Powell on March 10, 2016, for $3,000. The Powell lot is appraised at $430, and the Penn parcel is valued at $600, according to auditor’s records.
It’s unclear how the city, if necessary, would acquire the remaining two lots at the site, as it has had no contact with Joseph since he abandoned the Chill Can project several years ago. Though real estate taxes on the parcels are minimal – less than $16 annually for each – auditor’s records show that one of the parcels is delinquent $34.90, while the second lot is delinquent $48.96.
Records also show that M.J. Joseph Development Co. owns another parcel at 1339 Hubbard Road – separate from the Chill Can site – which contains an abandoned warehouse on approximately 10 acres. That property is delinquent $3,732,73 in real estate taxes, according to the auditor’s office.
Calls to DeMaine Kitchen, the city’s director of Community Planning and Economic Development and the sponsor of the measure before the BOC tomorrow, were not returned as of this posting.
Chill Can Case
The land acquisition is the latest development in an odyssey that began a decade ago, as city officials and Joseph – a Youngstown native who now lives in California – began to assemble land on the East Side to make room for the proposed Chill Can project.
The land includes approximately 21 acres of small parcels – some of which were occupied and privately owned – that is bound by Oak Street to the north, Himrod Avenue to the south, Fruit Street to the east and the Madison Avenue expressway to the west.
In October 2016, Joseph told The Business Journal that his company planned to construct an approximately $20 million campus at the site to support manufacturing and research of self-chilling beverage cans and other products.
The venture promised to create 237 jobs by August 2021, per an agreement it signed with the city in 2017, which awarded the project a $1.5 million development grant. The project never reported hiring more than two employees.
The city also incurred another $733,480.80 in acquisition, demolition and relocation costs associated with the development.
Four years into the project, work at the site came to a halt as the developer continued to miss deadlines to complete the campus.
Anticipating court action from the city, M.J. Joseph filed a complaint in May 2021, alleging the city did not have the authority to collect monetary damages nor was entitled to the land. The city countersued for $2.8 million, demanding a refund of its development grant, relocation and acquisition expenses and computed lost income tax revenue.
Judge Maureen Sweeney ultimately ruled in favor of the city, awarding restitution of $1.5 million and sanctions totaling another $733,480.80.
Meanwhile, MS Consultants – an architectural and engineering firm with local offices – filed a complaint in January 2023 seeking $322,907.80 from M.J. Joseph. The company argued it was not paid for work it completed at the project site. After a court ruled against M.J. Joseph Development, MS Consultants filed a separate foreclosure action, which the city joined.
M.J. Joseph’s attorneys eventually withdrew their representation as the legal matter moved forward, and in May 2024 the court closed out the city’s litigation against the developer, as the city deemed it unlikely it would ever collect its money. MS Consultants had earlier voluntarily dismissed its case against the company.
The foreclosure action proceeded, culminating in the sheriff’s sale in February 2025.
M.J. Joseph responded by walking away from the project entirely. The company’s phone lines in California are disconnected, and its website is no longer active.
In 2025, Joseph filed personal bankruptcy in California, but the bankruptcy was eventually withdrawn.
According to a recent LinkedIn profile, Joseph today is the CEO of Gold Camel Beverage Consulting LLC, based in Laguna Beach, Calif. No additional information regarding the company was available.