Developer CanCo has started work on Liverpool's first ever shipping container retail scheme - likened to Shoreditch's famous Boxpark.
The "funky, urban development" will offer 14 units which could be available as soon as April, with startups and street food vendors expected to be among the occupants.
The project gained planning permission back in August 2018, and the developer says it will prioritise local shops and entrepreneurs when leasing out the units.
It will be based in Toxteth's Lodge Lane and is set to have poetry and stories from local people printed on the walls.
Yas Alawi of Lodge Lane-based New Era Property Management, which has been retained to manage the lettings process, said: “This will help build on Lodge Lane’s continued success.
"It’s the existing community that has given Lodge Lane its energy and so we want as many local people as possible to come forward with ideas to occupy the new units.”
As part of plans to widen the community’s involvement local poet and story-teller Levi Tafari is to host workshops with local people, with excerpts from their stories and poems set to adorn the sides of the most prominent containers.
According to CanCo, 14 containers will be available on short, flexible terms to allow local businesses to try out new retail concepts without the risks and costs associated with long, institutional leases.
The development will use refurbished, insulated shipping containers of 150 sq ft each, with glazed frontages facing Lodge Lane.
The units will be laid out around a landscaped central courtyard on a site bounded by Lodge Lane and Grierson Street, with containers painted different colours and some stacked two high to offer "a striking, modern frontage".
Nathan Schreiber of CanCo said he wants the scheme to represent the ethos of ‘Made in Liverpool’.
“Our contractors are local, we’ve sourced the containers in Liverpool and we want our tenants to be from as close to Lodge Lane as possible."
Site clearance has already begun to allow the laying of a concrete plinth, for the containers to sit on.
Construction is expected to be complete by the middle of March, with units available for occupation "after Easter".
