Rendering shows what a proposed mixed-use building at 712-714 E. Fayette St. in Syracuse would look like. (PVE Sheffler)

Syracuse, NY -- Two developers have proposed using recycled shipping containers to construct a mixed-use building on Syracuse’s east side.

Christopher Geiger and Scott Smith plan to demolish a one-story medical equipment sales building at 712-714 E. Fayette St. and erect a five-story building in its place. The first floor will contain commercial space and the upper four floors would contain 36 upscale one-bedroom apartments.

The first floor and covered parking area will be constructed of concrete. But the upper four floors will be built with 130 used shipping containers, the kind used on cargo ships that bring goods from Asia and Europe to the United States.

The use of recycled shipping containers as a building material is a growing trend in the country, but this is believed to be the first local project to use them.

Developers Christopher Geiger and Scott Smith plan to demolish this building at 712-714 E. Fayette St. in Syracuse and replace it with a five-story retail and apartment building made of used shipping containers.

"I'm not aware of any other example in Central New York," said Andrew Maxwell, director of the Syracuse-Onondaga County Planning Agency.

Geiger said he and Smith hope to have the building ready for tenants by next fall. Rents have not been set, but Geiger said he expects them to be in the $1,100 to $1,200 a month range.

Geiger said the heavy-gauge steel containers will be trucked to the site in phases, stacked on top of each other using cranes and welded together.

It takes only 30 minutes to weld two containers together, making construction go very quickly, he said. The building's entire shell can be erected in under three weeks, he said. Holes will be cut in the containers for doors and windows. Electrical, plumbing and other mechanical systems, and insulation, flooring and other interior finishes will be installed after the containers are in place.

Each container will be 8-by-40 feet in size, but they can be cut or combined to make rooms of just about any size.

To increase the building's aesthetic appeal, a stone facade, fiber cement panels and split face block will be added to its corrugated steel exterior, Geiger said. However, he said the building has been designed so that anyone looking at it will know it is built from shipping containers.

"We're very proud of the fact that it's going to be built this way," said Geiger, a 1995 Syracuse University graduate who, along with Smith, owns approximately 130 apartments in Syracuse and DeWitt.

The use of recycled shipping containers is a growing trend among builders looking for a green alternative to traditional building materials. There is a surplus of shipping containers at U.S. ports because the country imports many more goods than it exports and it's expensive to ship empty containers back to Asia and Europe.

Shipping containers are being used at New York City's South Street Seaport as temporary quarters for retailers whose stores were destroyed by Superstorm Sandy. And they have been used in other cities for offices, homes and stores, including Starbucks Coffee Co. locations.

"We can create, within reason, any floor plan or aesthetic look," said Paul Galvin, chairman and CEO of SG Blocks Inc., the New York City company that will supply the containers for the Syracuse project.

Smith, an environmental consultant and founder of a facade and building restoration business in New York City, said he came up with the idea of constructing the Syracuse building with shipping containers after working with SG Blocks Inc. on other projects.

Smith said shipping containers make excellent building materials because they are built to carry heavy loads and they reduce construction costs by greatly cutting the time it takes to erect a building. Using them as building materials also creates a new use for a product that otherwise might join the waste stream, he said.

"Being an environmental consultant, anything that is greener and cleaner is interesting to me," he said.

With the use of a stone facade and paneling to soften its appearance, Smith said the Syracuse building will have a "cool, contemporary appearance with a traditional flair."

"We don't want our neighbors or others to be thinking this is something weird," he said.

Geiger said most of the apartments he and Smith own are rented to graduate students in the University Hill area. This is their first building project together. He said they picked the East Fayette Street location, situated behind the Parkview and Crowne Plaza hotels, because it is one block west of Loguen's Crossing, an office, housing, educational and retail center being developed by COR Development and Upstate Medical University.

The developers of Loguen's Crossing say their project will eventually employ about 3,000 people. Geiger said that will create significant demand among young professionals for apartments in the area.

The Syracuse Planning Commission voted last week to approve a resubdivision of the East Fayette Street property for the project. It is expected to vote on a request for site plan approval later this month.

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Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-3148. Follow him on Twitter @RickMoriartyCNY and on Facebook at rick.moriarty.92.

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