AmeriGuard has taken about 3,000 square feet of office space at world-famous Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith for the Library of Congress

A Central Valley company has announced further expansion of its East Coast operations.

Fresno-based firm AmeriGuard Private Security recently celebrated the grand opening of its new flagship office at 45 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

AmeriGuard provides security guard services to the federal government, including the U.S. military, and is a leading provider of alarm systems in Fresno County.

 

Lawrence Garcia, president and CEO of AmeriGuard, said that when opening the Manhattan location, or any location, he goes to where the clients are.

“We follow the work. We are licensed in 12 states and we’ll go to more states,” Garcia said. “But it’s not about collecting states. It’s about going after request for proposals that will fit our competencies.”

Garcia said that the New York market opened to the security firm through a shipping and harbor client, and since they already had security personnel on the East Coast, it was a good idea to establish an office in Manhattan instead of working out of Fresno.

Garcia said the goal is for the corporate headquarters to always remain in Fresno.

The Manhattan location is in the world-famous Rockefeller Center. AmeriGuard has about 3,000 square feet. The office will oversee about 250 security officers.

Whether in California or the several other states it operates in, AmeriGuard encounters the same challenge: finding qualified security officers, Garcia said.

“This problem persists and I don’t know when we will see the end of it. There are no signs or symptoms that this will be over soon,” Garcia said.

AmeriGuard currently operates in Virginia, Washington D.C., Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania and now New York.

Garcia said that New York presents a lot of opportunities for the company to grow, not only with his security businesses, but also his non-emergency medical transportation company, Transport US.

“These types of services are needed everywhere and we plan to bring them to the East Coast as well,” Garcia said.