When Paul Bradshaw was deciding what to do with the strip of shops and restaurants along Railroad Avenue he bought last year, he wanted something that embraced the neighborhood’s industrial past as well as its bohemian vibe.

“The area has deep industrial roots and was the city’s first development because of its proximity to the railroad depot,” Bradshaw said over coffee on a recent morning.

And then it struck him.

Shipping containers.

Bradshaw, a longtime lobbyist and real estate developer, is proposing to build The Freight Yard, a 28-unit apartment complex with retail along Railroad Avenue. It will be made entirely of used shipping containers and have 230 solar panels on the roofs of the buildings.

Bradshaw has recruited Wes James, a Phoenix-based architect who has become one of the top designers of container-based office and apartment buildings.

Masonry stacks connecting the three-story container towers will have street art commissioned by the same world-class artists that created Wynwood Walls in Miami, he said.

It’s the latest trend in urban and sustainable architecture, and Bradshaw hopes his project will inspire others to follow suit.

“This is a project that for 150 miles around people will travel to see,” said Joe Berg, president of the All Saints District Community Association.

It also will fill a gap in the current housing market, said Lucas Lindsey, co-founder of the DOMI Station business incubator across the street.

“My take is that there is a real lack of urban housing for young professionals,” Lindsey said. “I am happy to see someone do something creative and different to fill the gap of professional housing in an urban context. Anecdotally, I see a real need for that. I look around and don’t see housing options I would want.”

Bradshaw plans to submit preliminary designs in the coming weeks. Once the project goes through the planning and permitting hurdles, Bradshaw hopes to break ground on the first phase by October, with a completion date by next June.

The first phase will be limited to 12 apartments and parking and cost about $1.5 million. Each unit will be about 700 square feet and priced lower than what’s currently on the market in the surrounding neighborhood.

Blue Dog Project

The project is one of many launched by Blue Dog Investments, a Havana-based company formed by Bradshaw and his wife, Sally Bradshaw. Both are longtime political consultants who served as aides to former governors.

Through Blue Dog, the couple has bought 20 properties in Leon County since 2002 for a combined $12 million, property records show. Their projects include the Southern Porch on College Avenue downtown, 1123 Midtown (where Sally Bradshaw opened the Midtown Reader) and Kool Beanz Cafe on Thomasville Road, and properties on West Tennessee Street.

The complex will be built on a 1.5-acre parcel bought from the Nahoom family last June for $2.45 million. For decades, F. Joseph Nahoom ran American Restaurant supply out of the building now occupied by Bread and Roses Kitchen and Food Cooperative.

The property also is home to the Side Bar lounge, Merv’s and All Saints Cafe.

Bradshaw said he is negotiating with the current tenants to try to accommodate them so they can continue to operate in their current locations.

“I have a strong commitment to keep them onsite,” Bradshaw said.

He also said he is committed to local businesses and plans to not have any national tenants.

The Freight Yard is the most ambitious project by Blue Dog thus far, and the most ambitious use of shipping containers Bradshaw said he’s aware of because it combines residential with retail while simultaneously reducing its carbon footprint.

“Having people living above commercial and retail is the holy grail,” he said.

Shipping containers have caught on in recent years as inexpensive and reusable building materials that can be stacked into a number of different configurations. New York Times architecture and design blogger Allison Arieff called them “the 21st century’s brick.”

They’ve been used for office and living space to restaurants and artist colonies. Starbucks has even embraced the containers as a building material.

One of the more famous is Container Park in Las Vegas. Developed by Zappos.com founder Tony Hsieh, it includes galleries, boutique shopping, bars, restaurants and live entertainment.

Another project, the Box Office in Providence, Rhode Island, assembled 32 shipping containers into a dozen offices and studios

College Town Firewall

The zoning allows Bradshaw to build up to 100 units as high as five stories, but he decided to dial it way back so it could serve as a transitional buffer between the large scale projects creeping down College Town toward the All Saints district.

“This is a game-changer,” said Berg, whose association represents 100 businesses, property owners and tenants.

“We sort of set out two years ago to stop College Town from spilling over and taking over the whole area,” Berg said.

At the time, Berg had no idea Bradshaw was out there.

“He decided to do something cool that hasn’t been done in the region,” Berg said.

He’s also glad to hear that Bradshaw is committed to local business and making housing that will be affordable to middle-income folks.

“It proves that you can take a risk in development and still make it work,” Berg said. “He could have sold to a hotel and cashed out. This just proves that the right developers are out there when we say what we want.”