Infrastructure Boom Doesn’t Happen Without Portable Offices

The $550 billion in fresh infrastructure spending that President Joe Biden signed into law earlier this month creates some obvious industrial company winners. The engineering firms that will design and help orchestrate many of the projects are perhaps the biggest. Caterpillar Inc. and other makers of heavy-duty machinery also stand to make money. But there are less obvious winners, too, that are just as essential to building.

For instance, what’s a construction site without a mobile office and storage space? We’ve all seen these metal boxes, even if we’ve never given them any thought. Many are just shipping containers refurbished with climate-control systems, doors and advanced locks to serve as storage space or upgraded with electrical wiring, air conditioning and internet to be temporary offices or classrooms. The biggest dedicated provider of these portable facilities in the U.S. is a $9 billion company called WillScot Mobile Mini Holdings Corp. The company’s rental fleet of 375,000 mobile containers provides about as much space as 44 Empire State Buildings.