Archer Daniels Midland, the Chicago-based agricultural and commodities conglomerate, is considering expanding storage, milling, and shipping capacity at its mill complex in the industrial portion of east Spokane, preliminary planning and environmental documents show.

The mill site is located on a 7.5-acre parcel of land at 2301 E. Trent.

A predevelopment application on file with the city lists the project value at $200 million, although ADM now disputes that value.

Jackie Anderson, a spokeswoman at ADM’s Chicago headquarters, says the company hasn’t made a final decision on the project, and the plans could change.

“We are considering a range of options for improvements to our Spokane facility,” Anderson asserts in an email response to a Journal inquiry about the proposal.

“The scope of what we eventually do—if anything—would likely vary from what is filed in these applications,” Anderson says.

The cost estimate is significantly greater than ADM had envisioned, she asserts, although the preliminary application shows the estimate was submitted by an ADM representative.

ADM’s Spokane-based applicant and contact for the project couldn’t be reached for clarification.

At the listed project value, the cost would be far greater than the value of the current ADM mill complex, which includes a flour mill, highly visible grain elevators, a warehouse, an office complex, and utility structures. The Spokane County Assessor’s Office currently has the ADM complex appraised at $12.3 million.

No contractor, architect, or engineer is identified in the documents.

As currently proposed, the project would include two storage and milling structures and other improvements for truck and rail transport.

One structure would be 122 feet tall with a footprint of 1,500 square feet. It would have three levels and would have a storage capacity of 1,800 tons of grain, an environmental document says.

The document, known as a State Environmental Policy Act checklist, is a required part of the public notification process for projects of such scope.

Preliminary drawings show most of the height of the three-level building would be taken up by four side-by-side bulk storage compartments.

The second structure would be a 90-foot-tall wheat mill with six levels, the environmental checklist shows. The building would have a footprint of 1,800 square feet and a storage capacity of 250 tons.

The checklist says ADM wants to begin “construction as soon as possible in order to be operational by summer 2016.”

A preliminary site plan shows the project also would include improvements for grain receiving and high-speed loadouts for truck and rail transports.

The new structures would be adjacent to each other on the south side of the existing mill, while the new truck and rail loadout facilities would be constructed on the north side of the mill complex, the preliminary site plan shows.

ADM anticipates the mill will have up to 200 vehicle trips per day at peak harvest time in August, the environmental checklist says, adding that the project might require improvements to Crestline Street, which currently is unpaved on the west edge of the mill complex north of Trent Avenue.

A thin strip of BNSF Railway Co.-owned land with tracks is sandwiched between the south edge of the ADM property and Trent, while Springfield Avenue is on the north edge.

ADM has yet to determine the number of additional parking spaces the project would require, the environmental checklist shows.

No additional staffing is anticipated as a result of the expansion, the checklist says.

The current mill site, a longtime Spokane landmark, originally was one of several Centennial Mills facilities operating in the West, including the mix plant at 1131 E Sprague, also in east Spokane. ADM acquired Centennial Mills in 1981.

ADM also owns the former F.M. Martin Co. grain elevator and mill in Cheney.

If the Spokane mill expansion comes to fruition, it would be the second big grain-processing project in Spokane County within a few years.

In the other project, Waterville, Wash.-based HighLine Grain LLC is developing a $26.4 million grain rail loading facility near Medical Lake.

HighLine Grain is comprised of a group of four Eastern and Central Washington grain cooperatives.

That facility will have a capacity of more than 2 million bushels—roughly 60,000 tons—and a 110-car load and unload grain elevator.

Vigen Construction Inc., of Grand Forks, N.D., is the contractor on the HighLine project, which is expected to be completed late this year or early next year.