First shipping container retail park starts to take shape
Work has started on Liverpool’s first shipping container retail scheme in Toxteth’s bustling Lodge Lane – and local people will see their poetry and stories adorn its walls.
Developer CanCo is promising a “funky, urban development” that takes its lead from similar schemes in Shoreditch and Brixton in London.
And, its says, it will be prioritising local retailers and entrepreneurs with regards to the 14 available units.
The scheme secured planning permission in August 2018 and now that licencing issues with Liverpool City Council have been agreed, construction work has begun via local contractor Larnook.
“This will help build on Lodge Lane’s continued success,” said local businessman Yas Alawi of Lodge Lane-based New Era Property Management, which has been retained to manage the lettings process.
“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, famous 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 side of the most prominent containers.
Fourteen 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.
Work begins to clear the site
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,” he said.
Work has already begun clearing the site to allow the laying of a large concrete plinth on which the containers will sit. Construction is expected to be completed by mid-March, with units available for occupation after Easter.
