Start-up offers mobile office space in shipping containers

A San Francisco-based start-up, Campsyte, is establishing mobile offices based in shipping containers. The CEO of Campsyte believes the company's success will lie in its quick model replication, meaning tenants don't have to wait for real estate to be developed before obtaining office space.

— -- In one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country, startup Campsyte is leasing office space in shipping containers.

Campsyte co-founder and CEO Dennis Wong is leasing space in a parking lot in San Francisco, and the company is offering landowners the chance to rent out their properties for modular relocatable buildings.

Campsyte aims to make underutilized lots more productive, so future tenants don't have to wait years for real estate development. Though they may be temporary, Wong's shipping containers are refitted with sound-proofing and offer Wi-Fi, heat and air conditioning.

Campsyte is leasing the alternative office space to San Francisco startups because of the expensive real estate market. Courtesy Campsyte

Short-term leases range from $30 an hour to $150 a day or $3,200 a month, ABC's San Francisco station KGO reported. Wong, who spent 13 years in construction management, said the structures are earthquake-ready. The company boasts that the structures, which can be stacked, are easily removable for future development.

The company is working with San Francisco's planning commission to build in other parking lots.

Campsyte gained three customers in the first week of opening its prototype showroom, the company told ABC News.

The average cost of San Francisco’s asking rent is a record $68.14 per square foot, up from $66.71 in the third quarter of 2015, according to brokerage Cushman and Wakefield.