And right now, during a pandemic and all of the economic challenges that come with it, might seem like bad timing.
Thousands of central Ohio residents and business owners are struggling to maintain home and health in this difficult time.
And that’s actually part of the reason for Mid-Ohio Food Collective’s potentially game-changing ask.
“The need is now,” Steve Steinour, Huntington Bank’s chairman, president and
chief executive officer told the Dispatch Editorial Board.
He is right.
Hunger cannot wait, and neither can efforts to combat it.
The need has been described in scores of Columbus Dispatch articles over the years and a recent CBS “60 Minutes” segment showcasing the impact of COVID-19 on Columbus.
Apr 25, 2021
Mae West, that sassy, brassy 20th century American actress and sex symbol best known for her pithy platitudes, let loose this one in her 1959 autobiography: “An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.”
She may as well have been talking today to Mitchell Joseph of the M.J. Joseph Development Corp. of California, owner of the much-ballyhooed Chill-Can Beverage and Technology Complex for which construction began five years ago on Youngstown’s East Side. After all, Joseph has been sky-high on promises, rock-bottom low on performance in recent years.
About five years ago amid much fanfare, Joseph announced grand plans for a sprawling $20 million research and manufacturing complex in Youngstown for his company’s self-chilling beverage can technology. He vowed to create several hundred jobs and rejuvenate a decaying neighborhood. To a city thirsting for cool and promising economic catalysts, Mitchell’s pitch struck a nerve. He even sweetened his deals wit
YOUNGSTOWN City Law Director Jeff Limbian said no progress was made during a nearly two-hour meeting with the attorney for the Chill-Can project’s developer.
“Nothing new was brought to the table,” Limbian said of Friday’s meeting. “The expectation by them was to ask the city how to resolve this so they can have more time to make the right things happen. We’ve already given them time. We asked for solutions, and it doesn’t seem like those solutions are going to come.”
Limbian and Joseph Houser, an attorney hired by the city, met with Brian Kopp, an attorney representing Mitchell Joseph and his company, M.J. Joseph Development Corp., which owns the Chill-Can property on the city’s East Side.
Staff file photo / Ed Runyan
Mitchell Joseph, CEO of M.J. Joseph Development Corp., which owns the Chill-Can property on the cityâs East Side, told city leaders Wednesday he needs more time to complete the project.
YOUNGSTOWN The developer of the stalled Chill-Can project says he needs more time to complete the work, but city officials remain unmoved by the request.
“Time is needed to complete the construction phase of the Youngstown complex and hire Valley residents so that we may begin to manufacture and distribute product,” said Mitchell Joseph, CEO of M.J. Joseph Development Corp., which owns the Chill-Can property, in a prepared statement issued Wednesday by his attorney.