A new office development south of Alliance Airport in north Fort Worth combines affordability with the ability for tenants to express their own personal touches — all in offices made from shipping containers.

Called Box Office Warehouse Suites, the development is at 1953 Golden Heights Road, west of Interstate 35W at the Golden Triangle exit.

The project is being developed by Ron Sturgeon, whose business experience started when he opened an auto repair facility that eventually shifted to auto salvage. He then helped form the United Recyclers Group and served as its first president.

Sturgeon is a serial entrepreneur who also started a car storage firm, a chain of salons and spas, and has been a commercial real estate investor in Tarrant County for more than 30 years.

REFURBISHED SHIPPING CONTAINERS CHEAPER THAN NEW CONSTRUCTION

What makes Sturgeon’s location unique is its flexibility and allowing for a design that meets each tenant’s individual needs, according to the development’s website. Shipping container construction offers affordability because buying a used shipping container and refurbishing it is cheaper than building a new structure.

Sturgeon has chosen Hue Grant of Hue Grant Architecture to help design the Box Office Warehouse Suites. The Texas A&M University graduate has more than two decades of design experience.

“Shipping containers have great structural integrity, they’re inexpensive and they’re relatively easy to modify,” Grant said in a release.

“Shipping containers have great structural integrity, they’re inexpensive and they’re relatively easy to modify.”
Hue Grant

The development will have 38 multiuse business suites created from more than 100 shipping containers.

The process of adding windows, doors, wiring, plumbing, securing it to a foundation, and completing interior designs only takes a couple of months, according to the Box Office Warehouse Suites website.

The spaces can be used for a variety of purposes including office, warehouse, retail, or makerspace, and are fully air-conditioned upper and lower office/studio units. The containers are 8 feet wide and 9 feet, 6 inches tall.

The office units start at 320 square feet for $875 a month.

Box Office Warehouse Suites isn’t the only office development in Fort Worth based on shipping containers, however.

It  joins Connex, a three-story office building near downtown Fort Worth, in using shipping containers to attract the micro-office user.

Connex, at 1201 Evans Ave. near Rosedale Avenue, is the creation of Matthijs and Jie Melchiors, partners and founders of MEL/ARCH architecture studio.

Matthijs Melchiors told Dallas Innovates in April that his structure is “going to be an iconic building in Fort Worth.”

Connex will have enough space for 30 businesses.

Connex is near downtown Fort Worth. [Rendering courtesy of MEL/ARCH]

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