Developer seeks approval for mixed-use shipping-container project at 120 Bowery Street

William Spencer, founder of Serious Agricultural Development, asked the Prosper Plan Commission on Oct. 8 for permission to pilot a three-story, shipping-container mixed-use project on 120 Bowery Street, a lot he owns adjacent to his residence at 118 Bowery Street. Spencer told the commission the design would stack ISO shipping containers to create roughly 7,680 square feet of mixed-use space with a 24–48-seat restaurant and bar on the first floor, an ADA-compliant apartment, two "leafy green machines" for vertical hydroponic grow systems and multifamily units on the upper floors.

Spencer said containers are a cost-saving and faster-to-build alternative to conventional construction. "Containers are durable and reusable. They're structural units as a whole. They are cost saving compared to conventional construction," he said. He gave cost and schedule ranges in his presentation: conventional construction at about $1.54 million to $2.3 million and container construction at about $921,000 to $1.38 million; conventional projects, he said, take about six to 10 months while a container project could take three to five months to complete.

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