KLC gives containers new lease on life
WHETHER they’re hitching a ride on the backs of trailers or transporting cargo to our shores across the ocean, the usefulness of containers cannot be discounted.
Kingston Logistics Center Limited (KLC), however, has found an innovative way to give them a new lease on life.
“Given our core business, we have access to containers. We saw the opportunity where we could use them as alternative building solutions to provide offices, classrooms, police posts, hurricane relief centres, farmhouses, and schools or just about any space you can imagine,” said Novelette Henry-Mathison, marketing manager at KLC.
Henry-Mathison said a re-purposed 40ft by 8ft container can be transformed into a cosy two-bedroom, single-family home outfitted with a host of amenities.
The unit would boast an A/C unit, gypsum drywall partitions with integrated insulation on container walls and water-resistant panel construction for the bathroom, an acoustic tile ceiling, ceramic floors, sliding glass windows, two closets, kitchen sink and cabinet combo, shower, toilet, lavatory sink complete with interior plumbing system, electrical panel, wiring, sockets, switches and light fixtures ready for connection, and a textured tambutex exterior wall finish.
“This could also be used as a man cave or a guest house. It can hold a queen-sized bed,” she said.
The price tag for a two-bedroom unit is $2.1 million plus tax. A 20ft container could be retrofitted to super studio for $1.4 million plus tax.
The marketing manager said her company has been re-purposing containers for the last six years.
“Our general manager Michael Cohen came up with the idea in 2009 and we’ve been doing it ever since. There is demand for them and we’ve been getting a lot of enquires,” she told Auto.
Henry-Mathison said KLC’s creations can be seen on the campuses of several tertiary institutions.
“We did some classrooms at the University of Technology (UTech) in St Andrew, as well as donated a classroom to the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI) in Kingston,” she said.
KLC is a joint venture between Zim Integrated Shipping Services and Jamaica Fruit and Shipping Company Limited and is part of Zim’s Port and Logistics Global Logistics Network.
The services offered include freezone, transhipment, consolidation and deconsolidation, bonded warehousing, distribution, custom brokerage, inventory management and information technology.
