Shipping Container Village: Canadian Port City Gets Creative With Revitalization

(Source: Jan Vertefeuille.)

Approaching Saint John, the largest city in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, the first thing you notice is all the apparatus of a working waterfront. Shipping cranes tower over an industrial landscape as freighters stacked high with metal containers come and go from the deep water port. Saint John is also increasingly appearing as a port of call on cruise ship itineraries.

Across the harbor sit scores more shipping containers along the waterfront, but with a completely different purpose. The Waterfront Container Village is a collection of retail, food vendors, public art, and festival grounds built using colorfully decorated shipping containers that bring new life to what had been a dreary parking lot adjacent to Saint John’s historic core. 

(Source: Jan Vertefeuille.)

(Source: Jan Vertefeuille.)

Part placemaking, part adaptive reuse, and part small-business incubator, the innovative project is the brainchild of Area 506, a local non-profit group working in conjunction with business leaders and tourism officials. In addition to shopping and food, a slate of programming draws residents and visitors to the grounds, including the signature Area 506 Festival which brings top-tier Canadian music acts to Saint John (this year’s headliner was Toronto-based synthpop group Metric). Other recent events include family movies and trivia nights. 

Ray Gracewood, director of Area 506, was working in marketing at Saint John’s Moosehead Brewery and wanted to bring some new energy to the city, which, like many in North America, faced challenges as its primary economic drivers declined. He saw a city that “struggled with this idea of pride of place,” and was motivated to create something centered around music and culture that would let residents “put their shoulders back and really sort of embrace what was special about the region.”

Gracewood started working with the local destination marketing agency, but felt a greater sense of urgency, so he came up with the idea of Area 506 (named for New Brunswick’s area code) and started small. From 2016 to 2019, Area 506 staged a music festival around a provincial holiday weekend, assembling a temporary village using the port city’s plentiful shipping containers, which local food and retail vendors adapted in creative ways. The festival grew in popularity each year, prompting a push for a standing home. These efforts were hampered by the pandemic, but the Container Village became a permanent fixture on the Saint John waterfront in July 2022. 

(Source: Ben Abramson.)

This provided a new opportunity for Area 506 to provide a low-risk venue for local entrepreneurs seeking to start a business. Gracewood says this site offers “highly guaranteed footfall because of the cruise traffic that we bring in,” and that they’ve sought out a diverse group of tenants, including indigenous and female-owned operators, with a focus on New Brunswick brands. With rental prices well below market rates, he sees a shop in a shipping container as a “great opportunity for a business who might be online only looking for that first step to bricks and mortar,” or for an operator that has a retail location in another New Brunswick city seeking to try out a new market.

Partridge Island Publishing Inc. is one such business. Owners Amanda Evans and Shannon Dykens are seeking to grow and promote their publishing house, which specializes in discovering and distributing New Brunswick authors. Their charming shipping container showcases books they’ve published, and the shop hosts local authors for readings and book signings, including on the recent festival weekend. “Everybody says it makes them feel good to come in. And of course, books,” says Dykens, with a smile.

Partridge Island Publishing’s shipping container shop. (Source: Ben Abramson.)

They had applied unsuccessfully for grants to grow their business, and the combination of rent, utilities, and personnel in a permanent commercial space was prohibitive for an operation their size, so the low barrier to entry was key for them. Having this location has increased their brand awareness and social media following. But two factors mean it won’t work as a permanent location—the Container Village is only open from spring to fall, and the cool, dank climate of a shipping container is not ideal for storing books—so Evans says they ultimately dream of opening a coffee shop in the adjacent neighborhood, “where the arts community is,” that would serve as a feeder for Partridge Island Publishing. 

Other tenants in the village include The Little NB Box, which specializes in locally sourced gifts; Maritimer Clothing Co., with themed apparel; and East Coast Donair, which serves Atlantic Canada’s version of a gyro sandwich. There are also containers offering tourism information and E-scooter rentals. 

(Source: Jan Vertefeuille.)

Like many local citizens who pursued a blue-sky dream, Gracewood emphasizes that it takes a wide-ranging network, including government and corporate support, to bring a big idea to reality. Even with the permanent location secured, each festival is pulled off with countless volunteers and in-kind labor from local businesses dedicated to helping the event, and their city, thrive. Now the success of the original music festival has spawned a second featuring country music that Area 506 hopes will bring another round of foot traffic and tourism to the Container Village and the region. 

Gracewood gives special credit to the local port authority, Port Saint John, for providing the land for the Container Village, and more broadly for “reimagining what it is to be a port city and reimagining what that simple parking lot on the waterfront is.”

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