About an hour north of Laredo, in the dusty Eagle Ford Shale town of Encinal, a San Antonio-based developer has opened a new apartment complex that's made of shipping containers.
David H. Monnich, son of the developer, David Monnich (Development Strategies, Inc.), says three people are already leasing three of the seven completed units.
"Eventually, the plan is to build 72 units," he says.
While the San Antonio Express-News has been reporting about how the Eagle Ford Shale's experiencing a bust, David H. Monnich said that's not really a concern for the energy-efficient apartments because oil-field workers are not the developer's target. The complex is for the people of Encinal.
"My father's mainly building for families. There's not adequate housing [in the area]," David H. Monnich says. "One gentlemen who just leased out the first apartment is a manager at a truck stop."
There are one- and two-bedroom apartments at the complex. According to Development Strategies, Inc., the apartments are "highly efficient."
In a mission statement, David Monnich says adequate housing is needed in the Lone Star State's smaller towns, and building apartments out of shipping containers could be a system used across South Texas.
"Long term, the goal is [to] develop two product lines based on the same multi - container building system that can be sold for commercial as well as residential use," according to the mission statement.
In 2013, David Monnich told the Express-News that he became interested in shipping containers after seeing how they were used in Europe.
San Antonio Developer Completes Shipping Container Apartment Complex in Eagle Ford Shale
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