Youngstown OKs $1.5M grant for can plant
Tribune Chronicle
YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Board of Control on Thursday approved a $1.5 million grant to help a city native build his self-chilling-can plant on the lower east side.
The grant will help developer Mitchell Joseph pay for demolition and other work to get the property ready for construction.
Youngstown Mayor John McNally told Tribune Chronicle news partner WKBN-TV 27 Joseph has been working with the city for the past couple of years to buy the land.
“There’s going to be a lot of earthwork. That’ll be done as part of the project, so we’re looking for an official groundbreaking next month, but I think it can pretty much start moving forward now,” McNally said.
On Monday, McNally said in a news release that the city was “happy to announce” the intention of the Irvine, Calif.-based Joseph Co. International “to produce the world’s first and only self-chilling beverage can.”
The plan calls for the construction of four buildings and a site that would be used for East Coast administrative headquarters on 21 acres that the city recently rezoned from residential to commercial.
The land is bounded by Oak Street, Lane Avenue, Fruit Street and Himrod Avenue.
Production buildings are scheduled to be completed by late summer 2017 and in full operation by 2018.
City officials have said they expect some 250 jobs to be created at the high-tech plant.
Plans are for the $20 million complex to be built where Joseph’s great-grandfather founded and operated Star Bottling Co. from 1921 to 1970.
The Joseph Co. makes what is known as the Chill-Can. According to the the company’s website, “The self-chilling Chill-Can … has a built-in Heat Exchange Unit (HEU), which contains the technology necessary to chill the drink in under a minute. Upon activation (pressing the button at the base of the can) the patented technology activates the environmentally safe reclaimed CO2 in the HEU that leads to the chilling of the beverage.”
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