Property management co. gets into security

PORTLAND, Maine - A local, commercial property-management firm considered one of the largest north of Boston has decided to branch into security and offer the service to its customers. The Boulos Company and Boulos Property Management announced the addition of Boulos Security Systems in April. The company will be headed by Brian Moroney, a 10-year veteran of the security industry and former New England regional account executive for Protection One. The idea to start a security company to serve commer-cial property customers originated about two years ago after an employee of The Boulos Company came up with the idea. “We award a lot of security contracts for these buildings,” said Joe Boulos, owner of the company that bears his name. “Why isn’t this just a natural to be in this business?” Instead of buying an existing security company, which officials at The Boulos Company considered, the firm decided to start the business from scratch. Boulos Security has already selected a number of security product vendors to work with and plans to start off with two sales people and two technicians. By the end of the year, the company expects to employ eight people and complete a minimum of $500,000 of business. Though starting from scratch, Boulos Security already has a list of potential customers to target and has partnered with a New Hampshire-based systems integrator to serve that market. The commercial property management firm manages most of the major office towers in Portland, along with 600 locations for Banknorth, a regional bank, and 450 locations for Verizon. While integrated security systems will be the focus for the company, Moroney expects business will slightly dip into the residential market. “When you work a lot with business people, you wind up doing their homes,” said Moroney, who said a residential division may be possible in the future.