Businesses at home in recycled shipping containers

BOXED IN: Architect and real estate developer Peter Gill Case believes The Box Office is the most energy-efficient, commercial building in the state. / COURTESY JOE HASKETT
BOXED IN: Architect and real estate developer Peter Gill Case believes The Box Office is the most energy-efficient, commercial building in the state. / COURTESY JOE HASKETT

There’s plenty that could go wrong with a business plan dependent on attracting small businesses to work in stacked shipping containers, beside a train track, near a busy convergence of highways pouring into downtown Providence.
But in practice The Box Office has proven a clear success since it opened in the summer of 2010 on the former Harris Lumber site on Harris Avenue.
“Within a couple of months, we were 80 percent full. Now we’re almost 90 percent leased,” said owner, architect and real estate developer Peter Gill Case.
The 10,000-square-foot building, composed of 32 recycled shipping containers, has 12 offices ranging from 700 to 1,000 square feet. Office space rents for $17 per square foot and includes use of conference areas.
“The business plan was to hit the niche market of smaller spaces, even though there was a glut of office space, in general,” said Case.
Packaging 2.0 owner Michael Brown knew it was the place for him on the day he came to serve as a coach at Social Venture Partners Rhode Island, an incubator for social enterprises located in The Box Office.
“After the meeting I said, ‘I love this building. I have to be in here,’ ” said Brown. That was two years ago. The flexibility of the building offers Brown options for office space for his recycled-plastic packaging business, whose client list includes Whole Foods.
Since the packaging manufacturing is done in Massachusetts, Brown began sharing basic office space in a double container with a man in another business. Now he’s in a larger, five-container space working with people who have nothing to do with his company.
“Everybody has different desks and talks on the phone. There are some great meeting spaces,” said Brown, who is the only employee of Packaging 2.0 right now, but at some point, plans to hire additional employees.
“I could take a two-container space and grow. I don’t have to move,” said Brown, whose enthusiasm for the building embraces what some might consider disadvantages, like Amtrak trains whizzing by at close range. “It’s quiet inside, but when the trains go by, they’re so close the building kind of shimmies,” said Brown. “It’s part of the attraction. Isn’t it appropriate? You’re working inside a transportation unit – a shipping container.”
The Box Office has attracted the attention of the Belgian magazine Le VIF Weekend, Design New England, NPR, The Huffington Post, a Polish design magazine and a Japanese travel show.
In addition to media attention, the building is just a showstopper, said Brown.
“I have never worked in a space that created more buzz,” said Brown. “People stop their cars all the time and take pictures. They come in and they just want to know the story. The building itself is a work of art.”
However enthusiasts of The Box Office describe it, the foundation of the vision is practical and cost-effective, said Case. He believes it is the most energy-efficient commercial building in the state.
“I’m a green builder. We set out to make the building not only eye-caching, but a model for how buildings should be in the future. It performs better than the best LEED building,” said Case.
“It’s a steel building,” said Case. “It’s very airtight.”
“We have a very low utility bill,” said Allyson Cote, vice president of Maternova, an e-commerce marketplace that focuses on low-tech innovations that foster the health of women and children around the globe, with products such as an easy-to-use test for anemia.
“We have 10 windows. We have tremendous natural light,” Cote said.
Maternova first came to The Box Office 18 months ago for startup assistance from Social Venture Partners Rhode Island.
“We had a small section of their office. It was tiny, probably the equivalent of a 12-by-12 space,” said Cote. “It was good for us to be in an office space and we had access to a very nice conference room. We used it on several occasions, especially before we moved into our own space.” Now Maternova has one unit for two full-time employees, with room for up to four others, who, as of now, are mostly interns.
“I’ve worked in many other offices in Providence and the great thing about The Box Office is, it’s very cost-effective,” Cote said. “You don’t have to have a lot of resources to have a great working environment.”
While affordability and flexibility are among the advantages tenants like, there’s a wider, social perspective that draws some businesses.
“The building attracts self-selecting tenants,” Case said. “There’s a lot of interesting cross-pollination of ideas. There’s an interior designer and a contractor here and they collaborate on a regular basis.”
That collaboration also happened for Maternova.
“We just did work with Oomph,” said Cote, about a Web strategy, development and design firm in the building. “We just built-out a portion of our platform with the help of the Oomph team. We probably would have never met them if we hadn’t come here.”
Even though he hasn’t used the services of other companies in the building for Packaging 2.0, Brown said there is a thread of common perspective.
“There are lots of creative and social-minded, green-minded businesses here,” Brown said. “It’s like a little community.”
There has been some tenant turnover at The Box Office, usually for a merger or because a business outgrew the space,” said Case.
“The people who stayed here are people who are interested not only in price point, but in the innovative building type,” said Case. “They are forward-thinking in their business and they believe this building will help reflect that.” •

No posts to display