The Fort Steuben Mall parking lot in Steubenville, Ohio is a public safety crisis — and it has been allowed to get worse with each passing season.

Flamengos Investments, based in Winston-Salem, NC, purchased the Fort Steuben Mall property in May 2022. Since that purchase, the parking lot has continued to deteriorate into genuinely dangerous conditions: massive potholes are causing tire blowouts and vehicle underbody damage on every visit. There is significant missing pavement striping — no marked lanes, no crosswalks, no organized traffic flow. The surfaces are so severely uneven that pedestrians face real trip-and-fall risk every time they walk from their car to the door.
This is not an empty or abandoned property. Walmart, Texas Roadhouse, Aspen Dental, 7 Ranges, and multiple mall businesses operate here. Thousands of Jefferson County residents - seniors, families, people with disabilities - visit this site regularly. Every one of them is absorbing this risk right now.

To Flamengos Investments:
We are aware that you are in active litigation with the company that sold you this property in 2022, and that you believe you were misled about its condition. That dispute is yours to pursue. But Ohio property law is clear: ownership carries responsibility. A pending lawsuit does not transfer your duty of care to a courthouse. The moment you took title to this property, you became responsible for the safety of every person who walks or drives across it. That responsibility has not paused. It has not been suspended. It belongs to you, today.
We call on you to immediately commission and begin emergency asphalt and pothole repairs, restore proper pavement striping and pedestrian markings, and commit to a public, transparent timeline for completion. If cost-sharing with tenants or the City is required to move quickly — pursue it. We do not care how the bill is structured. We care that the work begins.

To Steubenville City Council:
You have a direct obligation to the residents and visitors of this city. We are asking you to formally contact Flamengos Investments in writing, demand a remediation timeline, and place this matter on the agenda for the next available council meeting. The community deserves to hear, on the record, what steps the City is prepared to take.

To Steubenville Building Inspection:
We ask that your department conduct an immediate inspection of the Fort Steuben Mall parking lot and access roads, document all code violations, and issue any notices of violation or compliance orders warranted under city ordinance. If the property does not meet minimum safety standards — and based on conditions visible to any observer, it does not — the owner must be formally notified and held to a remediation deadline. Someone is going to be seriously hurt. We are asking for action before that happens — not after.

To Total Finance:
We are aware of the public statement made through your council on or around April 11, 2025, in which you told local media that Total Finance "has plans to improve the mall property and expand businesses in the mall as soon as it has obtained final possession through the sheriff sale process."
We are holding you to that statement. It was made publicly, on the record, to the community this property serves.
While we wait for the sheriff's sale process to conclude, the parking lot continues to deteriorate and the people of Steubenville continue to absorb the risk. 
We are asking Total Finance to do two things now — before final possession:
First, publicly commit to a specific remediation timeline for the parking lot and access roads, so this community knows what to expect and when. A vague promise made through an attorney to a reporter is not a plan. We want dates, scope, and accountability.
Second, engage directly with Flamengos Investments and the City of Steubenville about interim repairs. You are the effective controlling party in this process. You have leverage. Use it. If the current owner will not act, you have every reason — financial and legal — to press for action that protects the value of an asset you are in the process of acquiring.
You told the public you have plans. Steubenville is listening. Show us the plan.

Sign this petition. Share it with every Steubenville resident you know. And if you are able, attend the next Steubenville City Council meeting and make your voice heard in person.