“Road Town businesses just got a tall new neighbour. Commerce House, a five-storey, 32,500-square-foot commercial and residential building was inaugurated last Thursday. Speaking at a launching ceremony, JOMA Properties Chief Executive Officer Colin O’Neal said he wanted to build something that had “landmark impact.”
“It’s different in many ways, as I think is self-evident. Many people have asked about the zig-zag pattern on the window,” he said. “They’ve tried to figure it out. There really is no pattern and that’s the point. I remember seeing it in a magazine of a rendering of a building to be built in Milan and I took it to [architects] Roger Downing & Partner Company Limited.”
The building – which features a glass staircase, underground parking and elevators – is “more than compliant” with structure, health, safety, fire codes and the Americans with Disabilities Act, Mr. Downing said.
The developers chose to build in the heart of “old Road Town” for a reason, Mr. O’Neal explained.
“I think it’s an area that has been somewhat overlooked because of the reclamation of Wickhams Cay – that’s the new Road Town. We still thought that there was a lot of potential to do something in the Road Town that we knew as children growing up. So here we are.”