A grassroots plan to save a concrete elevator from demolition in Raymore, Sask., has hit a dead end.
Terry Fazakas, a local business owner, confirmed this week that efforts to buy the elevator have failed.
Fazakas had been in contact with officials at Cargill and Canadian National Railway and had expressed an interest in buying the facility.
He was hoping the building could be saved and used to attract new businesses to Raymore, 100 kilometres north of Regina.
But on June 13, Cargill informed Fazakas that the building would not be sold.
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Raymore’s concrete elevator was built in the mid-1980s.
Until recently, Cargill had been using the facility to source and store canola.
Cargill had been considering Fazakas’s offer to purchase the facility but on June 13, the company confirmed that a sale was not in the cards.
“After receiving your offer to purchase, Cargill has considered various options in dealing with the Raymore grain elevator,” wrote Cargill official Jeff Wildeman in an email send to Fazakas.
“After discussions with stakeholders, Cargill has determined that the elevator facility will not be sold.
“We will proceed with the demolition process in due course.”
Fazakas’s effort to buy the elevator was complicated by the fact that CN owns the land on which the facility sits.
In a recent email, Anita Fleming, CN’s director of business development and real estate, said neither the building nor the land would be sold.
“CN has received your expression of interest in purchasing the grain elevator at Raymore,” she wrote.
“After discussions with the current owner of the facility, it has been decided that neither the facility nor the land it occupies is for sale.”
The original version of this story, published June 8, 2016, can be found here.
Contact brian.cross@producer.com
