Local Economy of Shipping Containers in Philadelphia

Philadelphia is a coastal shipping container depot location and transportation hub where intermodal Conex boxes are transported both by rail and road throughout the city. Philadelphia is geographically located in the East and its seaport and extensive network of both railroad freight routes and interstate highway system make Philadelphia a hub for container shipping in the USA. The Conex Depot Philadelphia container storage facility is located at ZIP 19134

Popular Shipping Containers Uses in Philadelphia

Buy Shipping Containers in Philadelphia. 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 Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia. You can save money and time shopping around by talking to one of our ConexDepot service representatives online.

Philadelphia shipping container projects and shipping container related businesses

Piazza Pod Park, a Philadelphia shipping container restaurant and retail complex. Local real estate developer Post Brothers is behind Piazza Pod Park – the mixed use entertainment complex put together out of repurposed shipping containers at Germantown Avenue and 2nd Street. The 35,000 square foot space in the Northern Liberties neighborhood is home to 15 custom units ranging from 10 to 40 feet long housing a variety of businesses and tenants. Piazza Pod Park features an outdoor beer-garden dining format, shopping at small boutique retailers, rotating art installations, and family recreation areas. There is a strong arts oriented flavor to Piazza Pod Park with art exhibitions and installations with a local artists in residence program with regular classes.

Post Brothers chose Britten, Inc. to produce these “BoxPop®” container pods to bring the business and neighborhood revitalization project to life. Britten Inc. is in charge of the conversion of the empty sea containers into semi-finished pods with a rough turnaround time of under 4 months. The job of converting the empty steel boxes involves all the way from the initial shop drawings, to fabrication, to transporting the boxes to the site, installation and utilities hookup. The individual pods are outfitted with amenities such as air-conditioning, outdoor upper deck systems, windows and doors, LED lighting, retractable awnings, insulation, HVAC, oak flooring, and audio systems. The food area seats up to 300 people with a variety of food and beverage vendors: Lil Sum Sum, Spread Bagelry, Urban Village Brewing Company, Tiki Tako tacos, Wine Bar, Craft Beer Concepts Inspired by Bru Craft & Wurst, Essen Bakery, French Toast Bites by Lokal Artisan Foods, Craft Cocktail Concepts inspired by BLUME, Empanada Box, and Mama Maria’s Italian Ice. For the family, the park features a “family zone” with playground equipment, climbing sculptures and rocking horses for the kids.

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

Are Shipping containers a solution for affordable Philadelphia housing? In a number of urban areas in the USA, city officials are looking at ways to solve the problem of affordable housing in low income areas. Philadelphia Councilman Jim Kenney is working on an innovative solution to remedy the city’s housing deficit: recycled shipping containers. Kenney, together with members of the Philadelphia Building Trades and Construction Council, has built a prototype cargo container home at the carpenters’ training facility in Northeast Philadelphia. The original concept was to procure contracts with FEMA – these containers could be used as shelters in emergency disaster areas – or the US military, for the mass renovation of the empty Conex boxes of the container units. Now the people behind the project are evaluating if there is sufficient traction for a city pilot project to work. The compact living spaces are built inside a standard 20 foot container with an area of about 160 square feet. There is also the flexibility to expand and connect the individual containers by placing them side-by-side and the solid steel structure of Conex containers enable them to be stacked up on top of each other. The modular homes (basic models from $ 36,000 USD) are renovated inside an offsite factory, before being transported to the eventual permanent lot. Home builder William Weston explains some of the options and challenges for cargo container homes. “We are exploring the possibility of solar panel and water collection system on the roof. We are still trying to work on a system for sewage. We would want something completely off the grid that you can set up any place without any need for public service,” Weston said.

Philadelphia Railroad Conex container shipping routes

Rail service is provided by three class-one railroads: CP Rail, CSX, and Norfolk Southern, and provides an intermodal connector to the principle freight highway routes I-95 and I-76.

Port of Philadelphia

The Port of Philadelphia is located on the west bank of the Delaware River and the terminals are managed by the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, PhilaPort. The Port of Philadelphia is also one of the Strategic Military Ports of the U.S. Department of Defense, making it one of a few ports in the United States that handle the nation’s military cargo.

The Port consists several marine terminals, each with specific cargo handling capabilities and functions. The busiest container terminal of the Port of Philadelphia is the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal, located just north of the Walt Whitman Bridge. Packer Avenue Marine Terminal handles a large volume of containers, including steel, frozen meat, fruit, and automobiles. Tioga Marine Terminal handles regular shipments of pulp cargoes from Brazil and a variety of breakbulk cargoes, including steel. Pier 84 is dedicated exclusively to cocoa beans and other cocoa products. Philadelphia Forest Products Center at piers 38, 74, 78, and 80 (along with their associated on-dock warehouses), which handles newsprint, wood pulp, lumber, coated paper, and other forest products.

Philadelphia main export businesses that use shipping containers

The primary merchandise export categories included chemicals, computer and electronic products, transportation equipment, petroleum and coal products, and machinery. The main export destinations are Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Pennsylvania’s top 10 exports: Coal (non-agglomerated, bituminous): US$2.5 billion, Miscellaneous medications: $1.5 billion, Liquified propane: $1.4 billion, Human-use vaccines: $1.1 billion, Immunological goods for retail sale: $760 million , Aircraft including engines, parts: $702 million, Motorcycles (large piston engine): $680 million , Palladium (unwrought or in powder form): $613 million, Large helicopters: $543 million, Cell phones: $537 million

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

Checkpoint Systems manufacturing, Chemtura, Aramark, Crown Holdings packaging, CSS Industries, Frankford Candy & Chocolate Company, Fuji Advanced Sports, Garfield Refining, Comcast, QVC, Inc, Conrail, Saxby’s Coffee, FMC chemicals, Pep Boys, Urban Outfitters, Sunoco, Ellis Coffee Company

Using Cargo storage containers for self storage in Philadelphia

A very popular use for various sizes of steel shipping containers in Philadelphia is self storage.
Consumers usually either buy a used shipping container or rent one from a Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia. Our sales team offer free project advice and the very best pricing on quality new and used shipping containers. Call now: (661) 412-2227.