YOUNGSTOWN - The company which has already been ordered to pay the City of Youngstown $1.5 million for not completing plans to build a factory, has now been ordered by a judge to fork over another $733,480 to the city.

On Friday, Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney approved a magistrate's previous recommendation to grant monetary sanctions against M.J. Joseph Development Corporation for causing delays in the legal battle over the company's failure to complete the Chill Can facility on the East Side. 

Developers broke ground on a ten-acre site in 2016, promising to bring 237 jobs to the area manufacturing self-chilling beverage cans.  The work was supposed to be completed nearly six years ago.

The sanctions are in response to claims that the developer failed to comply with several court orders fully, delaying the process at the city's expense.

City attorneys alleged that Chill Can repeatedly ignored sanctions by the court, and used delays to liquidate or hide assets that were promised to the city.

The sanction comes in addition to a September 2022 finding by Judge Sweeney that the M.J. Joseph Development Corporation had breached its contract with the city and that Youngstown was entitled to $1.5 million. 

The Joseph Development Corporation claimed the delays began during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.  City attorneys argued that the plant was expected to hire 150 employees before the pandemic began.  

In her ruling, Judge Sweeney found no just cause for the delay.