Photos by Sydnee Schwartz/DD
Containers on Grand, a multi-housing project made from repurposed shipping containers, was unveiled at an opening event party Thursday night.
Neighbors, supporters and prospective tenants toured the eight apartments, which were made from 16 containers and are stationed near Grand and 12th avenues.
Kathleen Santin, marketing director and partner of Containers on Grand, said applications for residency are pouring in.
“We’re still taking applications but we decided we wanted to get through this process (of showing the apartments to the public) first, so we made an executive decision to wait,” Santin said. “We wanted people to see them furnished first, get people to see what their unit might look like.”
Santin said she hopes to open the apartments next month.
Related: Marketing director hopes Containers on Grand will be ready for eager renters by June
One of the eight units will be used as an Airbnb, an apartment space to host travelers. This will be a promotional tool for local merchants downtown, Santin said.
“We’re going to have coupons for people. It is going to showcase all of downtown Phoenix,” she said. “The art is all donated, it is local art. Then the mattress was donated by Tuft and Needle, a local mattress company.
“Mornin’ Moonshine is going to fill all of our refrigerators to supply all of our Airbnb people with coffee.”
The rates for the Airbnb unit are undecided, but it should be less than a night in a one-bedroom hotel in Phoenix, Santin said.
“We talked to a lot of potential tenants about how they felt about an Airbnb and they loved it,” she said. “Because there will be people who will come all of the time. And they can use it for their families who are visiting so they can stay in the same unit as them.”
The rental units are set at $975 a month for the lower units and $1025 a month for the upper-level.
The exterior of the containers remains in its original form — one apartment is two shipping containers combined. Ceiling-length windows are at the front of the house, created with the use of the doors of the shipping containers.
Devin Rankin, neighbor of the new apartments, said the project has added to the arts district.
“It’s going to bring a new, revitalized feeling and sense of excitement,” Rankin said. “The really cool, urban feel, it’s innovative, it’s upcycling, reusing materials that would otherwise sit somewhere.”
The neighborhood has found an anchor, Rankin said.
“This whole neighborhood — people have started calling it the ‘triangle’, and this is an anchor for the triangle,” Rankin said. “It welcomes people into the Grand Avenue arts area into our neighborhood and it will bring a bunch of new tenants, a bunch of new faces to the neighborhood, and that’s exciting.”
This is the first multi-housing container project of its kind in the United States, said Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, who was present at the unveiling.
“First off, Grand Avenue is awesome and I appreciate the pioneers that have been working on this for a very long period of time,” Stanton said. “Innovators and entrepreneurs are really viewing Grand Avenue as a place to invest. It’s just a really cool, funky project I couldn’t be more excited about.”
The Grand Avenue Festival this Saturday will include an open house for the apartments.
Contact the reporter at Melanie.Whyte@asu.edu.
