CHS Inc. plans to demolish the long-standing grain elevators at 310 N. Madelia, in the East Central neighborhood, says Brad Smith, senior partner with Smith Construction Services, the Kansas-based contractor hired to raze the structures.

Smith says the elevators are deteriorated and no longer can be used for grain storage.

An asbestos team has been working to clean up the elevators, he says.

The out-of-service elevators also have attracted vandals and homeless people, he says.

A representative of Inver Grove Heights, Minn.-based CHS, which owns the structures, couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.

Smith says he hopes to begin demolishing the elevators in January and complete the project in May.

BNSF Railway Co., which operates the tracks adjacent to the elevators, owns the land underneath them.

Courtney Wallace, BNSF spokeswoman, says the company doesn’t have any plans for the property.

“Our operations team may use it to store vehicles, but there’s no short-term or long-term plans right now,” says Wallace.

The grain elevators were built in 1931 on 3.4 acres of land, Spokane County Assessor’s records show.

CHS is a farmer-owned cooperative with roots dating back to 1929. 

CHS was founded when the Cenex and Harvest States agricultural cooperatives combined operations in 1998.