Agent Blogs

Tashara Parker, KAGS-TV, College Station, Texas 8:23 p.m. EST February 26, 2015

An apartment complex built of recycled shipping containers and called Cube Square is in the making in Huntsville, Texas, near Same Houston State University.

(Photo: KAGS-TV, College Station, Texas)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — An apartment complex under construction about 75 miles north of Houston shows that 540 square feet can go a lot further than you might think.

The 24 efficiency apartments just a few blocks away from Sam Houston State University in this city of 40,000 are being built with shipping containers, the steel boxes filled with consumer goods that sail daily into U.S. ports but rarely make a return trip with made-in-the-USA merchandise inside.

"The original thought was, having looked at tiny house projects, was wouldn't it be cool if you could build apartments?" said Jack Wagamon, general contractor and part owner of Cube Square, expected to be ready for rental in August.

The 540-square-foot efficiency units will be part of a complex that will be four stories high in three buildings and use 36 containers.

The average size of a new apartment in 2013 was 950 square feet, according to the Urban Land Institute. And that additional 410 square feet not only could mean bigger rooms but could be the equivalent of a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom.

But Tina Felder, Wagamon's sister and designer of the units, said she's squeezed in surprising amenities in a maximum of 540 square feet.

"We ended up getting in a full-size walk in closet, full-sized bathtub, bathroom, kitchen, living area, dining area and even a sleeping area," said Felder, who's also part owner.

• In Detroit, a 20-unit condominium complex near Wayne State University called Exceptional Green Living on Rosa Parks is expected to be open by May.

• In the District of Columbia late last year, a four-story, 24-unit shipping-container complex called SeaUA was built near Catholic University in the nation's capital where rents are high and finding affordable housing is a challenge. Those units are designed as shared housing: Each floor has a common living room and kitchen and six separate 240-square-foot bedroom, bath and study areas. The rental price was not immediately available.

• In Vancouver, British Columbia, a 12-unit apartment complex that fits on a standard-sized city lot was designed to house low-income women. It opened about 150 miles north of Seattle in 2013.

• In France, architects in Le Havre across the English Channel from Great Britain designed a 100-unit complex of 260-square-foot containers that was completed in 2010.

• In Amsterdam, a container complex named Keewonen is considered the largest student housing project in the world with a dozen buildings that were designed to be temporary but have been in place since 2005-06.

The container homes are meant to be affordable housing at a time when building material and construction costs are increasing. The price of one shipping container is about $2,000, varying with the size and condition.

Here, a new "country cabin" 392-square-foot manufactured house is advertised for $650 a month on Zillow.com. And a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit with 400 square feet across from the university is going for $475 a month.

Wagamon and Felder haven't decided on their final rental price.