The Exchange Fort Collins

The Exchange is North Colorado’s first shipping container park that combines open-air spaces and unique retail partners into a beautiful public center and entertainment district. Set in scenic Fort Collins, Colorado, the Exchange has been welcomed by the city as a dramatic example of adaptive reuse.

While we’re going to highlight the portion of the Exchange built with shipping containers, the overall project is actually much bigger. As you can tell from some of the aerial photographs, the central courtyard is flanked by shipping container buildings, but beyond that are traditional concrete buildings. The entire project encompasses 53K square feet of space, although the shipping container portion of that is much smaller.

To really appreciate the Exchange, you need to have a greater context for the city of Fort Collins. Founded in the mid-1800s as an Army post, Fort Collins sits in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent to the Cache la Poudre River. It later became a center of agriculture and eventually the home of Colorado State University.

While the city has grown to the south, the historic downtown area, especially buildings in and adjacent to Old Town Square, has remained a source of pride. Numerous restaurants, retailers, and nature points are in the vicinity.

So, the chance to renovate the area near the old livestock exchange, which sits just north of Old Town, was an exciting opportunity. It’s the reason the new development was named the Exchange, after all.  And rather than tear down the existing buildings, designers repurposed them, then added to them with the shipping container construction.

The new shipping container development is blended old and new, with the spirit of Old Town mixed with forward-looking creativity. The designers used over 10 shipping containers, heavily modified and stacked on two levels, to create essentially two separate building wings on the east and west sides of the development.

In the middle is a large open green space for socializing, filled with overhead string lights, public murals, fire pits, and picnic tables. Thanks to special common consumption permits granted by the city, the Exchange is one of the old places in Fort Collins where you can enjoy alcoholic beverages and food together in a common outdoor area.

Included on the property are food and beverage establishments, small retailers, and creative professional offices. The outdoor space is a hub for live music and events. Embracing Fort Collins’ reputation as an outdoorsy, bike-friendly city, the Exchange included bike parking, a bicycle service station, and connectivity to the nearby Poudre River Trail.