More shopping will be popping up soon at the Edge of Downtown.

A collection of retail shops in repurposed shipping containers is scheduled to open in early December in a parking lot next to 603 Monroe.

Shab Chic Marketplace’s shopkeepers haven’t been announced but fashions, candy and music-themed items could be among the offerings. There initially will be three shops.

The Memphis Medical District Collaborative (MMDC) has been working with Shab Chic in hopes of injecting more life into the former automotive district on the eastern fringe of Downtown. The collaborative is a consortium of educational, medical and other institutions with a stake in Medical District growth.

“It gives us an opportunity to activate some currently vacant space,” MMDC program manager Vonesha Mitchell said of Shab Chic. “The objective is to make this area even more attractive for permanent development.”

The parking lot is across the street from High Cotton Brewing and Edge Alley. Edge Alley at 600 Monroe is a coffee bar complemented by a selection of microretailers. It opened this summer.

The shipping container marketplace is proposed for a lot that belongs to developers of a mixed-use project in the former Wonder Bread bakery and other underutilized buildings in the Edge.

A permanent use for the parking lot, located next to the former Kudzu’s Bar & Grill, is expected in a future wave of development.

The hottest business trend in Memphis? Setting up shop in a shipping container

Brian Christion, who is partners with Ebony Doss in Shab Chic, said the concept combines creative use of an abundant commodity, a metal shipping container; a flexible, temporary use of land; and a way for a small business to test operation of a physical store.

 “It’s almost like LEGO blocks,” Christion said. “If you have like 20 LEGO blocks,  the long ones, you can kind of stack them and play with them 100 different ways. That’s what we’re doing with these containers.”

“It’s an opportunity for small business to test the water on having a bricks and mortar shop,” Christion said. “The whole idea is we rotate the vendors every six months, so it’s always going to be a new vendor...”

“It’s only 120 square feet so it’s not a lot of overhead for whoever is in it. And it looks cool,” Christion said.

Christion said Youngblood Studio is modifying the containers for retail use.

Christion and Doss looked at doing the popup retail project 18 months ago. There were regulatory issues at the time that had to be worked out with regard to unconventional uses of shipping containers.

 “We had to pump the brakes and restructure some things because we were running into those code and building restraints a few other businesses have run into,” Christion said.

The first shipping containers placed in the Kudzu’s parking lot serve Freewheel, a slow-ride group bicycling project that has been promoted by the MMDC. One of the Freewheel containers will probably be used for a cycling-related function, Mitchell said.

Christion’s background is property management, and Doss’s is event and party planning.

They had been hoping to open before the holiday shopping season began, but weren’t able to pull it together. “We want to be open in the first week of December. We gave it a hard push to try to get something together for Black Friday but we ended up having to push the date just a little bit. We will be up and running for the holiday season in December.”

Mitchell said increasing awareness of the Edge made it easier to recruit retailers for the shipping containers. “All the things happening in the district are really helping us pick up momentum. We have lots of people who are interested this go-round.”

Tim Barker, operator of Edge Alley, said he welcomes more activity in the neighborhood. "I think they're on the right track. I think the opportunity exists in that parking lot to create a semi-permanent shopping experience that could in theory be moved."