Spokane real estate investor Vince Dressel and his wife, Janet, have bought a grain-silo complex just north of downtown, but havent decided yet what theyll do with it.


The couple paid $775,000 for the complex, which includes a long office-warehouse building adjoining eight concrete grain silos of varying diameters and heights with a combined storage capacity of 400,000 bushels of grain.


Were still just kind of gathering information, and may spend a year or so evaluating possible uses for the complex, Dressel says. I just thought it was unique. I thought it was a hell of a buy, bottom line.


The granary, formerly owned by V&M Investments LLC, of Spokane, had been listed at $850,000. It sits on a 45,000-square-foot site just north of Cataldo Avenue between Division and Ruby streets, near the south end of the Division-Ruby couplet. It shares the block there with a car wash.


Its one of only a few grain-silo facilities still standing in the city, and may be the most visually out of placeagricultural in appearance and reaching 120 feet high, but surrounded by low-rise retail and commercial buildings.


Listing agent Joseph K. Nichols, owner of Windermere Real Estate/Manito LLC, earlier had said that he thought the complex could be converted into a unique apartment, condominium, or hotel-motel property. Redevelopment makes the most sense there, he said, because the granary would cost half a million bucks to tear down, due to its location, concrete construction, and sheer size.


Dressel says he and his wife are more apt to redevelop it, though whether that might be for apartments, condominiums, offices, or some other uses has yet to be determined. One of the people he says he is working with as he evaluates uses for the property is Tony Janson, an architect at ALSC Architects PS, of Spokane, who has toured the elevators and has done a conceptual sketch of how they might look if they were redeveloped.


Janson said in an earlier interview that the warehouse building and elevators provide the equivalent of 74,000 square feet of developable floor space, but the challenge is connecting them all. He said, The shape and form is what makes that space kind of unique.


Janson said he envisioned the structures possibly being converted for retail space on the ground level and condominiums or office space on the upper levels, or for Gonzaga University student housing. ALSC has worked with Gonzaga on the design of other nearby student housing.


Dressel says one possible model for redevelopment of the property is Quaker Square, in Akron, Ohio. That hotel and entertainment complex is located partly in a 19th century granary once occupied by the Quaker Oats Co., according to a Web site about the development. Because of the shape of the silos, each guest room in the Crowne Plaza Quaker Square hotel is round, the Web site says.


The grain silo complex here dates back to 1921, when six of the elevators were built. The adjoining warehouse was erected in 1922, and additional elevators were constructed in 1947 and 1959. The last one built had the largest girth, with a 51-foot diameter.


A grain seed and feed company called Boyd-Conlee Co. originally operated the elevators, followed in 1960 by Coast Trading Co., whose weathered name still is visible high atop the structure. Tom Keigley, one of the owners of V&M Investments, says that company bought the granary in 1984 from New York-based Continental Grain, after that company bought Coast Tradings assets in a bankruptcy sale.


The demand for grain storage at that time was high, Keigley says, and V&M rented the elevators to Reardan Grain Growers Inc. for some time.


After that tenant left, though, V&M decided that the complex had become less viable for grain storage due to poor accessibility.


It began putting out feelers for prospective buyers of the property about a year and a half ago and formally listed it for sale last spring.


Keigley also is majority owner of Keigley & Co., a longtime Spokane designer and supplier of conveying equipment to grain and industrial customers. That company occupies part of the warehouse building that adjoins the grain elevators. Western Millwrights, which makes conveyor components, occupies space at the other end of that building. Those businesses will relocate, though Nichols says theyll be able to stay there for another six months.


Dressel says he and his wife own a number of residential and commercial properties in the Spokane area.