WARREN TWP., Ohio - The owners of a closed steel company in Warren Township are asking a Trumbull County judge to put the property up for sale. Warren Steel Holdings closed nearly a decade ago, and legal battles have kept the property vacant.

Warren Township trustee Edward Anthony said the community lost a lot of money when Warren Steel Holdings closed back in 2016.

“That hurt us bad. We lost several of hundreds of thousands on property taxes that weren't paid,” said Anthony.

Since then, a massive cleanup and an investigation into ties to Ukrainian oligarchs have left everything in limbo. 

Court records from 2020 shows one of the owners of Optima is being accused of being involved in "an international conspiracy to launder money embezzled and fraudulently obtained by PrivatBank" 

PrivatBank is one of the largest banks in Ukraine. Nearly a decade later, a foreclosure complaint is reopening the door for development on the property. Optima, the building's owner, is asking to sell the facility.

Selling the land and building is something that garnered interest in the past, but stopped about two years ago because of cleanup efforts.

“There’s been a little bit of interest in that. I mean recently there were a couple people that [were] looking at it. And even Ohio Star Forge that’s there now was also a couple years ago looking to expand there,” said Anthony.

The EPA said the company abandoned hazardous chemicals at the site and stopped operation of its wastewater treatment plant.

While Anthony was happy to hear about the plans to sell the facility, he said the process is at the beginning stages.

“That would generate some tax money for our community. Yes, that's exciting news and we do hope that's where this all leads to, but I do know there is some substantial cleanup that has been done there in the last two years and there's still some cleanup that needs to be done there,” said Anthony.