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Shipping Container Apartments Help Redevelop Jacksonville, Florida
A new apartment block made of shipping containers is planned that will help drive the redevelopment of the Cathedral District of downtown Jacksonville, Florida.
The Cathedral District is a large section of the NE Florida city’s downtown yet is largely empty for much of the week. It has a high number of car parks, five historic churches and cathedrals, and an awful lot of empty buildings. The plan is to redevelop the area.
Cathedral District plans
The Cathedral District consists of 36 urban city blocks covering around 120 acres of land. Some 60 acres are car parks.
Speaking to News 4 Jax, Ginny Myrick, CEO and president of the nonprofit Cathedral District Jax, said,”There are 60,000 people who work downtown, and there are 2,000 people who come to church every Sunday and then they all skedaddle.”
Cathedral District Jax is a non-profit aimed at driving life back into a part of the city that has largely been left to religion. God is said to help people but He’s yet to revive a commercial district of a city! Its website states, “Our goal is to create a community with love at its core. A thriving enclave where residents of all ages, backgrounds, interests and abilities can live, work, learn, play and pray together.”
That means housing, shopping and entertainments for a mixed population in such a way as to attract people to a buzzing, modernised quarter of then city.
OK, so why shipping containers?
Shipping containers are great for developers as buildings can be put together very quickly and cheaply. As such, the developers seeking permission to build the three-floor apartment block can achieve returns on investment (ROI) very quickly. This is no doubt a core feature of the idea is to use containers as a building block for a company that builds rental homes as longterm investments.
For those into urban living, container homes are an attractive proposition if the homes are built right with good heat control (not too hot or cold) as well as natural light and the normal fixtures and fittings. CEO of the developers JWB Real Estate Capital President Alex Sifakis told News 4 Jax, “These are high-end studio apartments. We’re going to do granite countertops and stainless steel appliances — all of the comforts of a home.”
They are however quite small. A report in Jacksonville.com explained, “Each container would be a 320-square-foot apartment, roughly the size of a hotel room. The apartment would have a living room, full-sized bathroom, small bedroom and kitchen. Rent could start at $550 a month.”
Some may refer to a well fitted out yet small apartment like these as ‘bijoux’ but many people living in tiny homes do this out of choice and at rental prices starting at just US $550 a month the new homes are very accessible for a range of lower income earners.
Lower income earners are as important to a city as the higher ones – just look at San Francisco where the money coming in squeezed the very people out of the city that made it attractive in the first place. Bristol in the UK is very similar.
If this all works out then the container apartment block could be one of the first pieces of a 3-D puzzle that will modernise and breathe life into a quarter of a city that only just about breathes today.
Inner-city redevelopment and Gateway Container Sales
With a constant supply of high quality used shipping containers, we could help you with your apartment development plans. Just give us a shout on (07) 3062 8406, or email us at sales@gatewaycontainerpark.com.au to discuss your needs!
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