Just off Station Avenue and down the road from Royal Colwood Golf Club in Langford are 13 retrofitted shipping containers on what used to be a gravel parking lot. This is The Langford Station — the city’s two-year-old project designed to help businesses and artists grow while attracting visitors to the city centre. 

Four of the shipping containers are reserved for artists to practise and sell their crafts. A fifth container, called the Creation Station community workshop, is a rentable art space for the public. These buildings are key to the city’s effort to brand The Langford Station as a creative hub.

The remaining eight containers, reserved for entrepreneurs, are dubbed business incubators. These rentable spaces are designed to provide a physical space for aspiring entrepreneurs to test their business models, sell their goods or services and build a customer base in a low-rent setting. Long term, the city hopes incubator businesses will succeed and expand to offices and bricks-and-mortar storefronts in Langford.

For entrepreneurs and would-be business owners who are interested in renting an incubator, here are a few need-to-know specifics:

Each incubator is licensed on an annual basis to a single retail business. Though there isn’t a limit on the amount of time folks can rent an incubator, Langford hopes businesses will scale up within three years. However, there’s no requirement to expand, or to do so in Langford.

A panel assesses all incubator applications and favours businesses that are local to Langford or Westshore. Businesses that have few or no other locations and that offer unique, creative products are more likely to have their application approved.

There are no kitchen facilities in incubators, although selling food is allowed as long as it’s prepared off-site. 

Rent for incubators ranges from $300 to $600 per month depending on the size of the shipping container. There are no monthly, weekly or daily rentals available.