What's Causing Those Gapers' Delays in Royal Oak

After months of scratching their heads in bewilderment, Royal Oak residents are no longer flummoxed about what the heck it was that ModEco Development was building at 2531 Rochester Road.

“Well, at first we were like, ‘What is it?’ ” Bill Csernits, who lives across from unusual construction project, told WXYZ, Channel 7.

Then, said Marie Chandler, who works nearby, “they were doing something like building or digging a hole.”

“Ever since construction started this summer people stop and stare at it,” Lawrence Marble, who lives two doors away, told The (Royal Oak) Daily Tribune. “Every day (motorists) on Rochester stop and look at it. Some people even take pictures.”

Then came the “aha!” moment.

“The housing industry has had very little innovation and we wanted to give it a different take on things.” – Nilesh Patel, ModEco Development

Royal Oak is about to boast the newest trend in urban housing – container houses, built by artfully connecting some of the estimated 21,000 shipping containers that arrive in the United States every day and, for the most part, are abandoned.

“That’s actually amazing,” Chandler said of the two-story, 2,100-square-foot home under construction. “And it’s pretty cool. I watch those shows where they make different houses out of different things.”

Nilesh Patel of ModEco Development thinks the project is the first of its kind in Michigan, but at least one other is in the works.Last month, a developer proposed a multi-unit “container-minium” in Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood.

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• Would You Live in a Shipping Container? Epic Upcycling Project Planned

Seven shipping containers are used in the 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath house, which Nilesh hopes to have on the real estate market in early 2015.

“We wanted to do something outside the box, especially for Michigan,” he told The Daily Tribune. “The housing industry has had very little innovation and we wanted to give it a different take on things.”

Container housing is no longer just an adaptation by “resourceful squatters” seeking shelter from the elements. Rather, containers are “building blocks” in everything from luxury residences to movable cafes to skyscrapers, Popular Mechanics said.

“Shipping containers can be readily modified with a range of creature comforts, and can be connected and stacked to create modular, efficient spaces for a fraction of the cost, labor and resources of more conventional materials,” the magazine said.

The project manager for the Royal Oak house, architect Joe Latozas with Designhaus Architecture in Rochester, said decommissioned containers are ideal building materials because they’re stronger than wood, already have wood flooring that can be used for a subfloor and can be acquired for $1,000-$4,000 each.

And, he said, “they are pretty much waterproof and rustproof because they are treated with a special coating to withstand the salt air” of ocean travel.

» Photo courtesy of ModEco Development Facebook page. Click this link for more.