A heart-shaped arrangement of bottles and flowers stood in a parking lot next to the grain elevator where U of M student and Como resident Germaine Vigeant died.

Photo by Chris Steller

COMO—For a year or more, the vacant Bunge elevator in the Como neighborhood has been the right place, and night time the right time, for those willing to trespass for a spectacular view of the city lights.

But for Como resident and University of Minnesota junior Germaine Vigeant, 20, Bunge proved the wrong place, and the early morning of Jan. 29 the wrong time. While exploring Como’s landmark with a friend but without a flashlight, she fell 100 feet to her death down an empty silo.

Vigeant’s life was remembered at her wake by more than 600 mourners, including friends and teachers from the East Side of St. Paul where she grew up. In an interview, her father, Buzz, who lives in Northeast Minneapolis, said Germaine was “full of life.” He recalled her sharp wit, sense of conviction and appetite for adventure. She “shone brightly for such a young person,” he said.

Vigeant’s death, or rather an injury or death like hers, was predicted in letters sent last fall to the property owner about the dangers posed by the old grain elevator. A man survived a similiar incident in October at a vacant North Minneapolis grain elevator when grain cushioned his fall.

On Nov. 30, in his last weeks in office, former Ward 2 City Councilmember Paul Zerby sent a letter to Bunge North America’s headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., expressing concern that graffiti taggers were endangering themselves and “are exposing themselves to greater risks as they climb the elevator.”

That prompted a Dec. 12 response from Bunge to the Southeast Como Improvement Association, whose attempts to reach the company had gone unanswered. The company cited “frequent patrols” and “almost daily” visits by maintenance staff—claims dismissed by neighbors who say the only activity they observed was that of explorers, taggers and vandals coming and going through gaps in the perimeter fence, such as along the railroad track side of the property.

After Vigeant’s death, newly elected Ward 2 City Councilmember Cam Gordon wrote to Bunge urging action, such as demolition of structures or installing better fencing. In a public statement, Gordon and newly-elected Ward 3 City Councilmember Diane Hofstede expressed sadness and sympathy for Vigeant’s friends and family, calling on Bunge to secure the building and looking forward to Project for Pride in Living’s transformation of the site into mixed-income housing.

At the time of Vigeant’s fall, a land transfer from Bunge to local nonprofit Project for Pride in Living (PPL), once scheduled for late January, had been delayed so pollution studies could be completed. Bunge was then and remains the property owner. Senior Project Manager Sarah Larson, said PPL and its partner, the Marcy-Holmes transitional living nonprofit Cabrini House, remain committed to the 185-unit residential project. Preserving the grain elevator’s tower for housing units is part of the current plan, she said.

According to the Como History Group, Vigeant’s was not the first fatal fall at the grain elevator. As reported in the Southeast Mirror on Feb. 24, 1937, “James F. Wallace, 74, former second ward alderman, was killed Friday night when he fell from a ‘man-lift’ at the Bunge elevator … where he was employed as night watchman.” (The Mirror reported he was elected to the city council in 1916 and lived on 16th Avenue SE.)

The Bunge elevator, now scarred by graffiti and vandalism, bears a mark from the time of its construction in the 1930s. It was the first elevator built in the United States using the “slip form” method of continuously poured concrete. But construction workers went on strike as the building was almost finished, and the work stoppage, although only a few days long, left a visible seam about 1/5 of the way from the top.

last revised: April 2, 2006