The North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis is an eclectic mix of restaurants, coffee shops and brick warehouses converted into lofts and condos.
But in what would be a first-of-its-kind in the Twin Cities, a developer is proposing making a new office building out of shipping containers.
Local marketing firm Akquracy is behind plans to build what founder Scott Petinga says would be the largest shipping container building in North America. The three-story, 18,500-square-foot structure would use 60 identical 40-foot containers to form a rhombus framing a ground-level park and plaza.
Shipping containers have become a trendy medium for some new buildings because they are abundant, strong and relatively cheap.
The architecture firm that designed the building, New York-based LOT-EK, has used shipping containers as the basis for designing buildings and mobile pop-up shops across the world. One of Akquracy's clients is Puma, which used LOT-EK to design a mobile retail and event structure called Puma City.
"If you look around the North Loop, the one thing that everything has in common is buildings were built to last," Petinga said. "Modern buildings aren't necessarily built to last. So I'm trying to bring some of that craftsmanship back."
Petinga purchased the site at 5th Avenue N. and 3rd Street N., which he says has been vacant for 98 years, in 2013.
The proposal would house Akquracy on the upper floors, as well as co-shared "incubation space" for local entrepreneurs. The ground-floor would feature a restaurant-cafe space, retail and a plaza with an array of public seats. Since the building is not square, there is much more open space between the structure itself and the curb.