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STORAGE TIPS

Outside Kelowna, Mobile Storage Containers Are Saving Cities

Posted on January 22, 2015

Shipping Container Home New York by Scott Beale

Shipping container store in Manhattan's South Street Seaport.
Photo credit: Scott Beale

If you’ve ever seen a MI-BOX® Kelowna mobile storage unit in a neighbour’s driveway, you know their steel frames make an ideal giant moving box for treasures ranging from pull-out sofas to snowboards when you’re between houses. But beyond Canada’s borders, it turns out shipping containers are saving more than just backs and money; they’re saving cities.

 

New York

Remember when Hurricane (superstorm cyclone) Sandy tore through the East Coast in the Fall of 2012? Millions were without power, thousands became homeless and dozens lost their lives. As New York State attempted to recover in the months that followed, units like our Kelowna mobile storage containers were used to revive everyday commerce along Manhattan’s South Street Seaport.

Containers were used as homes for a range of boutiques, from bars to sneaker shops, in the first wave of recovery along the East River. Brooklyn was also home to a temporary ‘container market’ that ran for nearly a year.

 

Detroit

Detroit Shipping Container Home

Photo credit: AP / Carlos Osorio

Hard-struck by the decline of manufacturing industries in this once-booming city, Detroit is preparing to open its first ‘occupied shipping container homestead’ in a bid to begin restoring abandoned neighbourhoods and deteriorating housing.

Inside a General Motors (GM) assembly plant, trades workers used to working on Chevys are using their skills to frame, plumb and wire what will become a 320 square feet home, carved out of a 40-foot long shipping container (about 2.5 times longer than our largest Kelowna mobile storage units).

In addition to two bedrooms, the container home will include a bathroom and a kitchen. Its first residents will be university student caretakers of a nearby community farm.

In an Associated Press article about GM’s role in Detroit’s container housing movement, company spokesman David Darovitz says the project aligns with GM’s commitment to corporate social responsibility.

"I loved the creative idea of taking and reusing an old shipping container and giving it new life," Darovitz said. "It can be used as a model for a bigger idea that's structurally sound."


 

Cleveland

Shipping container store Small Box Cleveland

Photo credit: Small Box Cleveland

In 2013, in a bid to revive a barren warehouse district, a non-profit group in Cleveland came up with the idea of using units like our Kelowna mobile storage containers as ‘micro-retail’ spaces. Instead of crumbling, empty parking lots, the food and clothing shops would draw people to the area and give it new life as well as boost local commerce.

The up-cycled containers easily convert to retail bays and the monthly per-square foot would be much cheaper for shops owners.

Find out how else storage containers are being used around the world in our post Outside Kelowna, Mobile Storage Containers Are Used for Homes, Museums and Cafes.

 

When you’re looking for a mobile storage unit, Kelowna homeowners trust the MI-BOX®, specifically designed for your precious cargo. Space Centre Self Storage also offers a range of residential and commercial storage options, including indoor boat storage, RV storage, drive-through or drive-up self storage, and more.

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