A unique restaurant is in the planning stages off of Old 41 Road in Bonita Springs. Architect Joe McHarris is working on the final design plans for a restaurant made of 12 to 14 shipping containers.   

The restaurant would fit into the Bonita downtown renaissance. Apartments and restaurants have started to line up along and near Old 41, attracting full-time residents and food lovers. 

The site plan is expected to be approved in two to three months and permits ready in seven to eight months.  

The idea to use shipping containers to build the restaurant came because McHarris owns a triangular-shaped quarter-acre on the south side of Tennessee Street just off Old 41 near Shangri-La Springs. 

“The site is such odd shaped,” he said. “It’s hard to put something square there. Containers are long and skinny.” 

He’s done some projects in Ohio where he used one container, he said. 

He is talking to three companies that ready the containers and place them on the site, but he will do the pre-fabrication if the price isn’t right. 

Containers are easy to find, he said, as China ships products over but doesn’t take the containers back, he said. 

Containers are being used to build schools and housing. Restaurants made of containers are growing in popularity, according to the website Onsite Storage Solutions. 

The next step is finding a restaurateur to run the bar/restaurant.  

McHarris didn’t specify what the project might cost.