Shipping container apartments may be coming to Dallas

By CW33

DALLAS — If you've driven by White Rock Lake recently, you've probably noticed the "PV14" house. It's more like a mansion, but what makes it famous is the 14 shipping containers that make up its second floor.

Using those containers as a building material is pretty neat, but most of us can't afford to build a house out of that many of them. So, what about just one container? Maybe a shipping container apartment?

That's exactly what Dallas developer Zad Roumaya hopes to offer tenants as early as December of this year.

A Craigslist ad he posted last week offers "bragging rights" to the "first members in this shipping container community" that's being planned for Dallas's Cedars District.

At just 320 square feet, wouldn't living in one of these one-bed, one-bath "ModPods" be a little... you know... claustrophobic?

Hey, maybe good things come in small packages. After all, the ad is targeting folks who "understand minimalist and spare (non-materialistic) living." And it does promise a nice view of that world-famous skyline of ours.

The price? $880 a month! Yikes!

For comparison: Down the street is the South Side on Lamar apartment complex. According to apartments.com, units there start at $1,420 for 1,195 square feet. Meaning those shipping container units will cost more than twice as much per square foot.

But that's a small price to pay to be able to brag about your cool modern shipping container apartment, right?

Roumaya says he's already gotten enough calls from the ad to move forward with the plans, assuming the city approves them. So, who knows? In a few months, maybe the Cedars will be home to some pretty cool new housing.