The city of Youngstown says it's time to put up or shut up for the developer of the proposed Chill Can plant on Youngstown's Eastside.

Wednesday, Mayor Brown told Valley native Mitchell Joseph's company it has 60 days to meet the benchmarks it promised or the city would see him in court

After months upon months of missed deadlines for both construction and hiring, Wednesday brought the first real sign that this long-awaited project may in fact not happen.

Mayor Brown and City Law Director, Jeff Limbian, said Joseph and his company have not held up their end of the bargain after getting about $2 million in grant money from the city to help move the project along.

After that 2017 agreement, that included a 10 year tax abatement, the plan was for the facility to open by the fall of 2019.

Last year, during a 21 News Watchdog Report on this issue the company blamed the COVID pandemic for a slowdown in construction.

Joseph told 21 News at that time that he expected light distribution and production by the end of the fourth quarter of 2020.

That has not happened.

Between the missed deadlines and tons of tax dollars tied up in this project city leaders are losing their patience.

Nearly 150 full-time positions were promised by the company when construction on the facility began back in 2016.

"FOR ME THE FACT THAT THIS MEANT JOBS FOR THE PEOPLE OF YOUNGSTOWN, THAT WAS ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WAS PROMISED AND THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED," said Mayor Brown.

The plant is in city councilman Julius Oliver's ward, and while he agrees with the mayor's ultimatum, he believes there's still plenty of opportunity to make use of the site.

"Just think about the entrepreneurs out there right now looking for a great location, this spot would be great for a grocery store or some other type of entrepreneurial activity," Oliver said. "At this point you've just got to be like 'yeah it's time to take it back'."

21 News has reached out to Joseph for comment on the issue. We're still waiting on a response.