R&D, training all part of CPI's roadmap

CPI Security now has a lot of room to grow, including some R&D space. The company started building a new 120,000 square-foot building a few weeks ago. Recently, I got a chance to catch up with Ken Gill, CEO of CPI, and talk a bit more about the new facility's design and how it compares to—and expands on—the current one.

Room to grow is a big theme with this building. Not everyone at CPI is moving over to the new facility once it's built, Gill said. In fact, the company currently plans on maintaining both buildings on its 28-acre campus.

“Even though we're not required to, the entire building will be UL-listed so we can operate [the central station] anywhere in the building,” he said.

The central station, which will move to the new facility when its completed, will have almost triple the space it has now.

“We'll have better training space in there. Research and development [space] is going to keep us on the forefront of technological advances,” said Gill.

The current 47,000 square foot headquarters was built in late 2001. Gill said he expects the move to be done around the end of 2016.

The building will have amenities like a dining facility and gym to attract and retain employees, he said. It will be environmentally friendly, and CPI will seek LEED certification for the building.

“If we keep our employees happy, then they'll—in turn—keep our customers happy, they'll be more engaging with the customers,” Gill said.

CPI's new building could even help the atmosphere. “Any time that you make investments into the business, it creates good morale,” he said. “When folks see growth, they see opportunity, from an employee standpoint, and we want our employees to know that they do have opportunity.”

CPI has about 130,000 customers in the Southeast United States.