A new, unique housing trend is popping up in Tampa's oldest suburb.
Tampa-based Sundog Structures is constructing one of their first homes made from shipping containers in Tampa Heights.
The company has four other container home projects in the works as well as a 5,000 square-foot financial services building.
"Very sustainable thing to be able to reuse this and make it a building that’s going to last 50 or 60 years when you consider the life cycle of the containers already in service are only 20 years," said CEO Robert Cox.
Cox tells ABC Action News, interest in container homes is gaining traction in Tampa Bay, thanks in part to one of their projects being featured on HGTV. Cox says more than 3 million people saw the episode.
“You really get this amazing sense of space that you don’t get from a normal building," said Cox.
Homeowner Bill Schwalbe was looking for an affordable housing option for a smaller lot when he came across the idea for using customized shipping containers.
"I bought some Play-Doh and I went home and I built to scale these little Play-Doh blocks, so I kind of started stacking them," said Schwalbe.
Sundog Structures delivered the containers to Schwalbe's lot on Tampa Street last week. He expects to be moved in by early May.
"You can make a house that fits your need as opposed to doing a traditional build where it’s just going to be kind of a smaller or bigger version of a house," said Schwalbe.
