What is a container park? Here's the scoop on Richmond's newest venue.

Tucked away in Richmond’s Carver neighborhood, abutting Interstate 95 and in the shadow of VCU, is a soon-to-be open events space.

But it’s not another “theme” venue where axes will be thrown or the pings of pinball machines will be heard. Instead, Conex RVA hopes to be a place where festivals, live music and rotating food trucks can entertain everyone.

The concept and name relies on the several shipping containers that are strategically placed, both high and low, around the space — some are spliced open to create a cozy feeling, while others serve as the bar or as a covered gangplank of sorts that will guide people in from the street. The space itself sits below street level.

“Conex. It's a nickname for shipping containers. Container Express,” said co-owner Brandon Garner, whose partner is Chris Farag. “I was in the Marine Corps and there's a lot of shipping containers that are used in the military and they call them Conex boxes. So the idea is a play on words for an event space that's built out of shipping containers. It can also be interpreted as connection.”

Garner is no stranger to Richmond’s business scene. 

“In 2021, I opened RVA Iron Gym over by the racetrack and that's really where I started building the community,” he said. “Richmond is very community culture oriented. We opened our second location down in Chester in 2023 and that's how I met my partner, Chris. He's the owner of Tap House and Scotty, so he's my partner here.”

Once they open — which should be sometime in mid-November — Garner said they want to hold festivals every single weekend, such as fall and spring festivals, concerts and more. On their Instagram page (@conex.rva), they show scenes of an upcoming ice skating rink for a winter wonderland festival and a planned temporary movie theater. 

“We want to focus on being a family-friendly event space where we can do art festivals, we can do food truck street fights, where we've got eight trucks [that] we award the best pizza or something like that,” said Garner. “We're not just going to open and say, OK, we're open.”

The space is two levels in spots, with one high balcony Garner is calling the VIP space. It sports a huge fireplace and overlooks a common area. String lights crisscross the high ceilings. Below the VIP spot it opens up onto an the pavilion area, where the winter wonderland ice rink and future festivals will be.

“This is where a lot of the crowd is going to be,” he said. “You have the sun deck over here. We built a smaller stage on the bottom here that we're going to be putting three 85-inch TVs on the background of.”

One shipping container will have open windows on the front and the back to serve drinks from. That backside sits just below the container bridge. 

“We want this to kind of be a more calm, relaxing, chill side,” said Garner. “So it creates more of an ambience of relaxation and a kind of get away from some of the noise.”

A previous building that Garner says was a restaurant has been upgraded as an indoor restaurant that will feature smashburgers and local beers. He says his food won’t compete with the rotating food trucks they hope to have, too. 

“Before we put the containers in, just this restaurant was here,” said Garner. “We built the kitchen, we built the bathrooms, nothing was in there at all. I've seen some old photos of this brick building that was all worn down, and there was street art all over it. We definitely improved the space.”

And speaking of art, you can’t miss it. Giant murals surround concrete walls and the sides of the shipping containers, all created by local artists. 

“Most of the art that's in here was curated by Humble. He's an artist from Richmond [but] he currently lives in New York,” said Garner, who adds that the two connected in 2018. “When I first came in here, I gave him a call. And I said, ‘I've got all this space. I've got all these walls, and I want to fill it with great artists. Who do you know?’”

From there, Humble curated a team of local artists and were able to come out and create giant murals. The artists include Humble, Nils, Emily Herr, Jerro and Ian Hess. Plus, Silly Genius, DKANE, Meme, Basta and Erek Jones.

“A big part of this place was inspired by Wynwood Walls down in Florida,” Garner said. “If you go down there, they have just a completely immersive experience where it's just tons of walls filled with great art. If you don't come here for the food or the music, you come here to see some incredible artwork.”

For Garner, opening up in the Carver community and directly next to I-95 was a no brainer.

“I think the best part of it is the visibility. We have the East Coast right beside us. And people pay to have billboards right there,” he said. “So for us to be right off the highway, right off the exit of Belvedere, we have a huge opportunity here for marketing towards the freeway.”

He says being in the Carver community and also being a stone’s throw from VCU feels like they’re in the heart of the city, adding that the community and city officials have been receptive.