Local Economy of Shipping Containers in Minneapolis

Minneapolis is an inland shipping container depot location and transportation hub where intermodal Conex boxes are transported both by rail and road throughout the city. Minneapolis is geographically located in the Upper Midwest and its extensive network of both railroad freight routes and interstate highway system make Minneapolis a hub for container shipping in the USA. The Conex Depot Minneapolis container storage facility is located at ZIP 55418, east of the 47 just south of Columbia Park

Popular Shipping Containers Uses in Minneapolis

Buy Shipping Containers in Minneapolis. Buy a shipping container from Conex Depot, with all different sizes of both new and used cargo containers for sale. Conex Depot sells to both individuals and to businesses in the greater Minneapolis region and in 38 cities all over the USA. It’s easy to contact us and buy a used shipping container direct from Conex Depot in Minneapolis. You can save money and time shopping around by talking to one of our ConexDepot service representatives online.

Minneapolis shipping container projects and shipping container related businesses

A former restaurant space at Minneapolis’ Target Center is home to the new Cargo Food Authority – a shipping container food complex with entertainment. Restaurateur Brian Ingram is behind the idea to develop a food-truck like concept that serves casual food out of graffiti-covered repurposed cargo containers. The 9,000-square-foot Cargo Food Authority will seat 480 eaters inside at beer hall style shared tables built from old shipping pallets. Several food stands, made from shipping containers – decorated with graffiti from local artists – will offer different menu choices which include tacos, wings, pizza and pan-Asian food. For those who want to enjoy an alcoholic refreshment, Cargo Food Authority has a bar menu of cocktails on tap with spirits supplied by Tattersall Distilling and beers offered from local brewers Third Street Brewhouse and Pryes Brewing Co.

The Cargo Food Authority space also has room for various games (like beer pong and basketball hot shot), and a performance stage for live music. In the warmer weather months, the restaurant’s garage doors can open for outdoor patio dining on Sixth Street. Cargo Food Authority is located inside Target Center at 600 1st Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55403. Ingram also has future plans to open Bus Stop Brewhouse and Burgers, a vintage-bus themed eatery near U.S. Bank Stadium.

Shipping container home developments, Shipping container apartments and tiny homes in Minneapolis

Minnesota Architect Coverting Old Shipping Containers into Tiny Homes. Minnesota architect Geoffrey Warner is the man behind the project to turn Conex containers into affordable tiny homes. Warner is well known in the tiny house world for coming up with the “weeHouse” – one of the very first shipping container housing prototypes in the Minneapolis area. His most recent shipping container project is called the LightHouse. Previously, back in 2016, Alchemy Architects converted an empty sea container into a mobile hotel. With planned locations in more than a dozen spots around Minneapolis – Saint Paul, the potable hotel spaces were named “lightHotel”. After starting with the LightHotel, Alchemy has gone on to develop a non-container modular home, the LightHouse. The 400-square-foot home/cabin or ADU comes with Passive House windows and 12? SIP floor, wall, and ceiling panels.

LightHotel. The LightHotel rooms are a one-room, 120-square-foot space constructed from salvaged 8’ wide x 20′ long x 8′ height shipping container and are customized for year-round use in Minnesota.
Features include: spray foam insulation, triple-paned windows, solar powered HVAC, LED lighting, hydronic in-floor heating, a 250-gallon water tank (stored under the queen size bed), on-demand water heater, wet room with shower and toilet. Alchemy Architects describe the LightHotel demo as both a modern approach to urban living and an exhibit on sustainability. The challenge for the LightHotel hotel is the red tape in obtaining permitting from the municipality. The developers are seeking approval from the state of Minnesota building code forcing the team behind LightHotel to categorize the current status as a temporary art installation.

Minneapolis Railroad Conex container shipping routes

Shipping container cargo is transported by rail in Minneapolis by the primary freight carriers: Class I Railroads: BNSF Railway Company (BNSF), Canadian National (CN), Canadian Pacific, Union Pacific Railroad (UP); Class II Railroads (Regional & Short Line Railroads): RCPE, Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern; Class III Railroads (Local & Switching Railroads): Wisconsin Central Ltd. (WC), Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern RR (DME), Northern Plains Railroad (NPR), Soo Line (SOO)

Port of Minneapolis

The Port of Minneapolis is the northernmost port on the Mississippi River System and is an important Midwest center for commerce and the distribution of goods throughout the Midwest region. The Port is located at the convergence of the Mississippi and the Minnesota Rivers, and is situated 17 nautical miles upriver (20 kilometers or 12 miles northwest by air) of sister city, St. Paul. The Port of Minneapolis economy is centered largely around commerce, rail and trucking services, finance, health care, and manufacturing. Target, XCel Energy, PepsiAmericas, US Bancorp, Ameriprise Financial, and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans are all headquartered within the Port of Minneapolis. Several international companies have their US offices in the Port of Minneapolis: Coloplast, ING Group, and RBC.

The manufacturing industry based in the Port of Minneapolis produces metal products, computer equipment and electronics, plastics, precision instruments, medical devices, auto parts, and agricultural products. Secondary industries in the Port of Minneapolis list high-tech, graphic arts, publishing, insurance, milling, and food processing. The Port of Minneapolis operates a Bulk-Loading Dock to ship grain and other dry bulk commodities such as coal, feed products, and coal. With large volume capacity of 150 rail cars, the rail line connects with the CP Rail System.

Minneapolis main export businesses that use shipping containers

According to Trade Dept figures, Minnesota exported a total of $7.1 billion in agricultural products in 2016. Minnesota is the 4th largest agricultural exporting state in the U.S with its top export commodities of soybeans, corn, feeds, pork, and soybean meal, Top Minnesota exports transported in shipping containers: Medical needles, catheters: US$792 million, Lenses, prisms, mirrors: $677 million, Iron ores, concentrates: $569 million, Medical/dental/veterinarian instruments: $465 million, Aircraft including engines, parts: $448 million, Parts for filtering/purifying machines: $388 million, Flat sheet plates, sheets, foil, tape: $360 million, Modems, similar reception/transmission devices: $308 million, Miscellaneous artificial body parts: $306 million, Integrated circuits (excluding processors/controllers): $295 million

Many of Minneapolis’s largest companies employ shipping containers in their business

Polaris Industries, Hormel Foods, Xcel Energy, Ameriprise Financial, Ecolab, Land O’Lakes, Supervalu, Target, UnitedHealth Group, Cargill, Best Buy, 3M, Coustic-Glo International Ceiling Maintenance, Mayo Clinic

Using Cargo storage containers for self storage in Minneapolis

A very popular use for various sizes of steel shipping containers in Minneapolis is self storage.
Consumers usually either buy a used shipping container or rent one from a Minneapolis shipping container seller and store it on their property or rent a space to park the storage container. Conex Depot specializes in the sale of shipping and storage containers in the Metro Minneapolis area and can give you advice and pricing on the best size of shipping container for your personal storage or business storage needs. Whether you need a storage container for keeping inventory, securing construction materials, or storing furniture during a remodeling project, we have a number of storage solutions that will meet your needs.

Conex Depot offers all sizes and grades of shipping containers for sale in Minneapolis. Our sales team offer free project advice and the very best pricing on quality new and used shipping containers. Call now: (661) 412-2227.