It wasn’t so long ago that the now iconic neighborhood of DUMBO Brooklyn was nothing more than dilapidated warehouses and run-down industrial buildings. This transition has taken place at a breathtaking pace and has caught the attention of quite a few substantial companies and property developers. This tech renaissance isn’t exclusive to DUMBO, it’s been ongoing in neighborhoods like Greenpoint and Williamsburg.

Why does the transition to more tech and creative focused industry create a boon for security guard services in these neighborhoods?

There are a few reasons, let’s just state the obvious first – these properties had previously not warranted the security as they were left vacant. Now, some more nuance to the answer. Many of these buildings are warehouse conversions and aren’t going to be “amenitized” like the high-rise office buildings throughout Manhattan. Manhattan is flush with “Class A” buildings which are defined as:

“Buildings that represent the newest and highest quality buildings in their market. They are generally the best looking buildings with the best construction, and possess high quality building infrastructure. Class A buildings also are well located, have good access, and are professionally managed.”

Class A buildings typically have a robust physical security program with strict access control for the benefit of their tenants, which of course is a cost passed along to those tenants in their rent.

Whereas the conversions in Brooklyn often fall into “Class C” which could be loosely defined as:

“Class C structures are older buildings, minimum of 20 years old, but often much more. They may appear out-of-date and have neither a lobby attendant nor security. They may lack modern amenities, these buildings rent functional space at below average rates, and compete for tenants who desire a more economical option for office space.”

These Brooklyn buildings offer a unique character to companies that are looking to establish their trendy brand and offer more of a blank canvas for a company to truly make their own, all while saving substantially on rent. Fast growing tech companies seem to find these spaces particularly attractive, perhaps as another way to differentiate themselves and attract talent looking to avoid the “stuffiness” of Manhattan office space. Another sector we’ve seen make the move into Brooklyn has been the creative worlds of Advertising, Digital Marketing, Design, and Media for many of those same reasons.

These companies make the move into Brooklyn and quickly realize that their new office space they’ve invested heavily in making their own is left vulnerable without security guards providing access control in the buildings lobby. Or perhaps a company has grown organically from the beginning in Brooklyn and has reached a size at which point a security guard for their office space has become both a necessity and more easily budgeted for.

In today’s world many companies cannot afford to take the risk of opening themselves up to a security incident. We’ve all seen far too many examples of a single security incident being the unfortunate downfall of an otherwise great company. However, there’s a fortunate distinction between security services that are provided by a landlord and the security services that a tenant contract for themselves. A company that is provided security by their landlord will never truly have security services that will be looking after their interests, instead, building security is obligated to put the landlord’s interests above the tenants.

A tenant that contracts their own security service will be able to make it their own, those security guards will be looking out specifically for the interests of that tenant, their employees, and reputation. Better yet, with a company like Corporate Security Resources (CSR) providing the security it’ll be tailored to that company’s image and culture.

The larger national or global security companies have a tough time offering anything other than a cookie-cutter security service. Often, they cannot meet the unique image and cultural standards of these creative industries that have found a home in trendy Brooklyn neighborhoods. It takes a security company like CSR that will spend the time to learn the culture and atmosphere of a business, then jointly develop a security program to meet those needs. Further, it has always been CSR’s practice to assign and hire specifically for each unique client so that our security guards work in concert with the mission and goals of our clients.

The niche we’ve found within the growing Brooklyn tech and creative scene extends to the other boroughs of NYC, where we’ve also found tremendous success, delivering a security service that meshes far better with these industries than they’ve experienced in the past. We anticipate that this space will continue to be a boon for Corporate Security Resources and those we serve in the years to come.