Poma Architectural Metals is a Florida-based company providing inventive fabrication in metal and glass. Working on high-profile buildings around the world, Poma has developed many patented technologies used in the architecture industry.

The company is headquartered within a family-owned 275 acre industrial park in Palm City, Florida. The combined facility includes 65,000 SF fabrication floor and engineering office space. The industrial park includes a number of companies and divisions including: construction and development (Poma Corp), aluminum and metal fabrication railings (Poma Architectural Metals), pre-cast concrete walls (Redi-Tilt), liquid and powder coatings (Coastal Powder Coatings, Inc.), and a sand mining operation (Palm City Sand).

Frank Poma, the founder and company president, began working in this industry in 1974 to pave the way for his seven children. Four of Frank’s eldest sons have taken their places in each of these divisions.

History

TRANSFORMED THE ARCHITECTURAL LANDSCAPE Frank Poma was born Francesco Poma in the farmlands of Sicily in 1951. His early years were spent in a rustic home with no running water or plumbing. At the age of 9, his family would leave Italy in search of opportunity. They first made their way to Metz, France; then to America where they made their way to Detroit, Michigan in 1961. It was here in Motor City that the young Frank Poma would spend his formative years, learning the value of hard work and invention.

As a teenager, Frank worked as a baker in his East Detroit neighborhood, eventually taking over and managing the company as part of a family business. There he earned enough to start his own business with a friend, who had been working in a small shop producing railings. Together they scraped together enough money for basic tools and shop space and started Michigan Wrought Iron, founded in 1972 at the age of 21.

Soon after starting this early business, the duo had an idea. Frank had visited Florida a few times with friends during Spring Break, and recalled that almost every residential condominium development had tens of thousands of linear feet of guard railing. The pair packed everything into a truck and made the voyage to Florida.

However, upon arriving, they started noticing that all the rails were made out of a strange material. They realized a big problem: they had never worked with aluminum, and the steel railing they were accustomed to making wouldn’t last two years without rusting out in the salty coastal environment. Thus began an adventure in learning the craft of the coastal guardrail construction. They stored their equipment while working at a local railing company in Boca Raton. There they honed their craft, before setting out again six months later.

This is also where the business partners would part ways, each starting their own businesses. Frank would go on to start Poma Aluminum and Steel in 1974.

Within a year of starting his company, Frank Poma quickly found success, and would soon bring his parents from Detroit to work with him, starting a family dynasty that has grown into one of the most innovative fabrication specialty companies for metal and glass. Over the next few decades, his company would develop a number of patented systems, bringing advanced aluminum railing into a high-performance arena.