The digital era may be upon us but paper documents aren’t going away any time soon.National Ltd’s new purpose-built 25,000-square-foot warehouse on Industrial Park Road, Southampton hopes to take care of a major share of the records storage needs of Bermuda’s local and international businesses.National vice-president and director Sen Jonathan Smith said the two-level $7 million building has four warehouse spaces within it varying from 2,000 square feet to 13,000 square feet in size.National president Anthony Smith, the building’s contractors and designers were on hand as Premier Paula Cox cut the ribbon at the official opening of the warehouse on Wednesday.She said she applauded local companies like National “for standing up and taking risks” in this economy.Despite the downturn, already 100 percent of the warehouse’s space has been committed.Digital Documents, a National-related company, has taken two of the spaces. And there’s an agreement in principle for the remaining ground-floor space to be leased by a small business, which does not want to be identified yet.The steel-frame pre-engineered building was designed to withstand winds of 160 to 180 miles per hour and has an advanced fire suppression system. It also has substantial concrete foundation, traditional concrete constructed water tanks and is more than 50-percent air-conditioned.Sen Smith said that subject to the issuance of a final occupancy certificate, National expects occupancy within the coming weeks.“Our vision for this project evolved in 2006,” Sen Smith recalled. “By 2008 we selected our architects, general contractor, steel supplier and the other key consultants and subcontractors. We reached a contract agreement at the end of 2010 and site works commenced in early 2011. Although National Limited is a new company, we quickly established an ethos of wanting superior quality work. We’re very pleased that in pulling together the team to work on this project, we’ve ensured that many Bermudian owned and operated companies were involved in the construction. “He added building in a recession was a risk, but the developers believed in their plan and executed it with the full support of the financial backers.Sen Smith said the Industrial Park Road area represented a significant growth opportunity for businesses wanting a presence in the West End, in advance of any development at Morgan’s Point.“The cost of the land, construction of the facility plus specific tenant fit-out requirements make this a $7-plus million development. We have solid shareholders with us, a vision for the future and believe in the resiliency of the Bermudian economy. “Sen Smith, a former police commissioner, is also CEO of Central Filing, which provides records stora and management, tape vaulting, shredding, scanning and other services.The General Contractor for the new warehouse was BCM McAlpine.National partnered with Memphis, Tennessee-based Varco Pruden (VP) Buildings to provide the steel and a pre-engineered design.Director of International Sales for Varco, Skip Hannah, said: “VP Buildings was pleased to supply National Limited with a pre-engineered building, part of which will be used as a first class record retention centre for Bermuda.”– Architect for this project was Linberg & Simmons. Construction financing was made available by Butterfield. Other subcontractors included P&M Electrical Supply and Services, GSC Limited for HVAC, Bermuda Elevator Systems and Woodbourne Associates, along with crane operators, steel fitters, drywall specialists and painters.