A Tri-Cities landmark that has guided travelers, served as an inspiration to artists, and, more recently, played a role in the region’s communications network is up for grabs.

The dormant grain elevator, one of the tallest buildings in Kennewick, goes to auction online Oct. 22. It is located alongside the railroad tracks that run parallel to West Clearwater Avenue, between Kellogg Street and Columbia Center Boulevard.

While the structure already generates tens of thousands of dollars in revenue via leases for its warehouse and the elevator’s upper reaches for cell tower arrays, determining a market value for the property has been difficult, auctioneer Scott Musser of Musser Bros. of Pasco told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business.

“The owners felt an auction would be the best way to discover pricing,” he said. “Auction really is the purest form of price discovery in an open market.”

The grain elevator and its attached warehouse on West Clearwater Avenue currently generates $60,000 a year via leases.

| Photo by Nathan Finke

The property at 6500 W. Clearwater Ave., appraised at $583,250 by Benton County officials, is currently owned by Fortunato Inc., which is held by Fred and Rosemary Giacci, according to state records.

They acquired the property from BNSF Railway Co. Musser said the couple “is getting up there in years and looking to simplify their lives.” 

According to property records, the grain elevator, emblazoned with “General Mills Sperry Division,” and its attached warehouse were constructed in 1941, serving as a point where local farms could get their grain onto rail cars and then to market.

The building hasn’t been used for its original purpose in years, its tower now populated with numerous cell tower arrays leased by cellphone service providers. Those leases are managed by a single company that secured an easement for the upper reaches of the facility from the owners and now sends them regular residual payments.

Combined with a lease for the attached warehouse, the property currently generates $60,000 in revenue a year.

“It’s immediately a cash asset that deals out mailbox money,” Musser said.

While the grain elevator is now surrounded by commercial and housing developments that have popped up in west Kennewick, it was originally an isolated structure.

Gale Metcalf of Kennewick, a longtime volunteer with the East Benton County Historical Society, recalled during his high school years that students would use the rarely-used two-lane roads around it to drag race. “It was all sage and prairie bushes,” he said.

The grain elevator also has played muse to local artists, who have portrayed it in pencil, watercolor and oils in renderings hanging in offices, restaurants and museums throughout the region. 

The auction for the 1.47-acre property will take place online at 2 p.m. Oct. 22.

Musser said the owners have pledged to give a portion of the auction proceeds to an effort to establish a new women’s shelter for the Union Gospel Mission.

Musser is excited to see what kind of ideas the next owner may have for the property.

“If someone wanted to put in a cool steakhouse, you’d never have to worry about telling people where you’re at,” he said.

Go to: mbauction.com.