After more than a year of construction delays, Salt Lake City’s first experiment with using recycled shipping containers to build a multistory apartment complex is nearing completion.
Rod Newman, owner of Eco Box Fabricators and the main backer of the Box 500 Apartments, says the boxy six-story metal complex at 543 S. 500 West is more than 90% finished and its 84 affordable units are expected to open to renters sometime around April.
[Read more: Want to live in a revamped shipping container? SLC apartments are poised to open.]
The Salt Lake Tribune took a tour Wednesday of some of its unfinished living spaces, which will range from studio apartments with 320 square feet to one- and two-bedroom rentals averaging 640 square feet.
The living units, according to Newman, will be kept affordable to those making 60% of the region’s median income.
Box 500 Apartments is thought to be among the tallest structures worldwide made primarily from the ubiquitous steel boxes used for shipping goods.
The project has been thrown off schedule repeatedly since construction started in early 2020, with supply-chain problems due to the pandemic and concerns from city building inspectors over some of its materials and techniques.
While those delays were frustrating and costly, Newman has said Box 500’s bumps also provided valuable research and development information his firm will use to refine future residential construction using shipping containers.
“Anything worthwhile takes time,” he said Wednesday. “We’re just getting started.”
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