A prominent grain storage and processing facility in Presque Isle is for sale.
Maine Potato Growers Inc., a Presque Isle-based agricultural cooperative, listed its grain terminal at 153 North St. for $1.2 million in late February with RE/MAX County.
Built in 1948, the facility features a warehouse with more than 7,600 square feet of grain storage and office space and three steel silos capable of holding nearly 500,000 bushels of grain.
The cooperative built the first two silos in 1993 and added the third in 2008, according to property records.
The company’s grain division once advertised itself as the “largest cooperative marketer of grain in Maine,” but moved away from grain several years ago. It handled feed barley, malting barley, oats, wheat and rye.
Lynwood Winslow, MPG manager, declined to comment on the listing Tuesday, but said the co-op was strong.
The facility occupies 3.55 acres and includes a grain dryer, cleaner, truck scale, receiving pit, and distribution systems for grain handling, the listing states. Existing infrastructure also connects the property to a railroad that runs adjacent to its northern boundary.
The complex sits on the corner of North and Maysville streets near the Aroostook Centre Mall and is a dominant landmark on the way to or from Fort Fairfield.
Environmental site assessments at the property in 2018 found levels of arsenic in surface soil above 54 parts per million, exceeding state guidelines for commercial and construction workers, according to documents filed in the Aroostook County Southern Registry of Deeds.
As part of a voluntary remediation process, MPG removed 22 tons of contaminated soil from the property and covered other areas with clean soil or other materials, according to an order from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection certifying the remediation.
