A 2.6-acre plot of city-owned land that has been vacant for years is being transformed into a vibrant marketplace with restaurants, bars and shops, all of which will be built entirely from shipping containers.

If all goes according to plan, the complex at 28 Bathurst St. will open this spring.

“Rather than leave it sitting there vacant as unused land for years and years, we’ve partnered with an entrepreneur to create an innovative stacked container market,” said Coun. Joe Cressy​.

The company overseeing this project is called Stackt, and its founder Matt Rubinoff says construction is almost finished.

“We’ve got approximately 100 containers on site, and will probably have a total of around 120,” Rubinoff said.

Those shipping containers will house about 30 different businesses, Rubinoff said.

“Retail is one aspect, we have showrooms, we have studio spaces, we have restaurants.”

The size of the spaces will vary, ranging from 140 square feet to 1,800 square feet. In some cases two businesses will operate out of one container. They can also connect multiple containers together, by removing some of the walls, to create much bigger spaces.

In the contract with Stackt, the city mandated that 15 per cent of the spaces would be set aside for social community enterprises. Among them will be a vertical farm and a greenhouse.

Keep reading on CBC News

 

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