But Orion Goff, deputy director of development services with the city's Division of Community and Neighborhoods, confirmed Friday that the building was currently being inspected for approval for final occupancy, with a target for "all required approvals by the end of the month."

"The city," Goff said, "is excited to see this innovative and unique project completed and occupied as soon as possible."

The goal all along, Newman said, has been to prove a concept: He wants to show how best to use cargotecture to make new homes that are affordable — in this case, to those making roughly 60% of the area's median wages.

That's part of why state backers of subsidized affordable housing and others have chipped in on Box 500, as has the city, by waiving the typical impact fees charged to housing developers.

Yet the project has faced one obstacle after another since construction launched in the early months of 2020, starting with a COVID-19 pandemic-induced global supply-chain crisis that made crucial building materials difficult and costly to obtain. That even affected the Lego-like metal shipping boxes themselves, which also exploded in price during the pandemic.

Getting functional elevators for the building, Newman said, was a saga all its own. He seemed delighted on a recent tour to step into one of its newly installed lifts — its trim still covered in plastic — and push a button and have it work.

"This is so cool to have an elevator," he told visitors.

With engineering delays, major cost overruns and no shortage of administrative obstacles, Newman said he had to switch to lenders midway through the build. Box 500 is also on its second general contractor, he added, after business relations with the first went south.

In addition, records at City Hall indicate Box 500 has had to surmount red flags from building inspectors on a range of fire-safety concerns and issues with construction materials used in its roofing, flooring and electrical sheathing. Many of those features, Newman said, "the city made us redo."

And by way of proving out the concept of residential cargotecture at six stories, he said, all those lessons learned could now be folded into a similar project in future.

"I could build another one — or build units for someone else," Newman said. "Would I do it? Maybe not."