Parker Custom Security supplied and installed the entrance and apartment door package for the Garden Spires and Spruce Spires redevelopment in Newark, New Jersey — one of the largest affordable-housing rehabilitations in the state. Parker's scope covered more than 20 aluminum storefront entrance installations across 15 buildings, plus over 500 fire-rated apartment entry doors. Every door was replaced while residents stayed in their homes, with no tenant relocation. The work replaced deteriorated entrances that no longer latched, sealed, or met fire code with commercial-grade storefront systems and labeled fire-rated openings built for high-traffic multi-family use. Parker Custom Security has installed and serviced commercial storefront doors, fire-rated doors, intercoms, and access control for apartment buildings, co-ops, and managed portfolios since 2003, serving Newark and all of Northern New Jersey, New York City, and Westchester County.
The rebuilt main entrance at 175 First Street — one of the two Garden Spires towers in Newark, New Jersey.
Inside the Garden Spires and Spruce Spires Door Replacement
Most door projects involve one building and one entrance. This one involved a portfolio — and residents who never moved out.
Garden Spires and Spruce Spires are two long-standing affordable-housing communities in Newark, New Jersey. Garden Spires occupies a pair of twenty-story towers on First Street; Spruce Spires is a cluster of low-rise buildings at Spruce Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Together they house hundreds of families.
Both properties went through a major, publicly financed rehabilitation. According to the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, the combined $172 million project addressed more than 2,700 outstanding state fire and building code violations across the two communities, and was completed without displacing a single tenant.
Parker Custom Security was brought in for the part of that work that residents touch every single day: the doors. Entrances, vestibules, and the apartment entry doors themselves — the openings that decide whether a building is secure, whether it passes fire inspection, and whether a resident feels safe walking in at night.
Project Details
The Challenge: Hundreds of Failing Doors, Zero Room to Relocate Anyone
Older housing stock fails at the openings first. Frames rack out of square as buildings settle. Closers wear out and get removed instead of replaced. Latches get taped over. Glass gets replaced with plywood. Each fix is small; the cumulative result is a building that no longer secures or compartmentalizes itself.
At both properties, that had been happening for decades. The buildings dated to 1963 and 1920 respectively, and the door and entrance package had reached the end of its service life across the board — not in one lobby, but everywhere at once.
Three constraints shaped everything about how the work had to be done:
- Fire-code exposure across hundreds of openings — apartment entry doors are fire-rated assemblies. When a door won't self-close or won't positively latch, it stops performing as a fire barrier, and it becomes a violation on inspection.
- Occupied buildings, every day — no unit could be left open overnight and no resident was relocated. Each apartment had to be opened, demolished, reframed, hung, hardware-set, and secured within the same working day.
- Volume with consistency — 500+ doors across 15 buildings only works if the detail is identical every time. One-off solutions do not scale to a portfolio.
Sound Familiar? Common Door Headaches in Older Apartment Buildings
If you manage older multi-family property in Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, or anywhere in Northern New Jersey, some of this will land:
- "The front door doesn't lock unless you pull it." A racked frame or a dead closer means the latch never fully engages. The building is effectively unlocked, and anyone can walk in behind a resident.
- "We keep getting written up for the same doors." Fire-rated openings fail inspection for small reasons — a missing closer, a painted-over label, a gap that's out of tolerance. Patching one door at a time never clears the report.
- "We can't relocate tenants for a door replacement." The most common reason door work gets deferred indefinitely. It shouldn't be — occupied-building sequencing is a standard part of this work.
- "The glass gets broken every few months." Full-glass entrances at street level in high-traffic buildings are a recurring expense, not a one-time one.
- "Every door in the building is a little different now." Decades of one-off repairs leave a portfolio with no standard hardware, no keying scheme, and no spare parts that fit anything.
All of these come from the same root cause — an entrance package that has aged past the point where repairs make economic sense. Replacing the assembly solves the whole list at once.
The Solution: A Standardized Storefront and Fire-Rated Door Package
Rather than repairing openings individually, Parker replaced them to a single standard across both properties. Entrances were rebuilt as commercial aluminum storefront systems. Apartment entries were replaced with labeled fire-rated door assemblies. The same hardware, the same finish, and the same details repeated building to building.
- Removal and disposal of existing entrance frames, doors, and failed hardware
- New commercial aluminum storefront framing at building entrances and vestibules
- Expanded metal mesh infill panels at lower glazing positions for impact resistance
- Over 500 fire-rated apartment entry doors, hung and hardware-set
- Commercial locksets, closers, and weatherstripping throughout
- Coordination with the intercom and entry panels at main building entrances
- A unified finish across both properties for a consistent, maintained look
Completed entrance at Spruce Spires — storefront door with mesh infill, alongside the building's entry panel.
Paired entrance doors at 175 First Street, with a full-height sidelite and directory panel between them.
Managing a portfolio with doors that keep failing inspection?
Parker Custom Security replaces entrances and fire-rated doors at scale across Northern New Jersey — in occupied buildings, without relocating residents.
Executing the Work in Occupied Buildings
The sequencing is what makes a project like this possible. Work moved building by building and floor by floor, so disruption stayed contained to one area at a time instead of spreading across the whole property.
Entrance work was staged so residents always had a secure way in and out. Frames were set, plumbed, and clamped while the opening stayed controlled, and temporary protection went up wherever a lobby was open to weather or foot traffic.
Apartment doors ran on a per-unit cycle: open the opening, remove the old assembly, prep and reframe, hang the new fire-rated door, set the hardware, and confirm the door closes and latches on its own before the crew left. Residents returned to a secured apartment the same day.
New storefront framing set and clamped in place during the vestibule build-out, with the lobby kept passable throughout.
Interior vestibule work in progress at 175–195 First Street — column cladding going up with protection still in place.
Design & Specifications: What Goes Into a Multi-Family Door Package
This section is for property managers and boards scoping similar work. These are the decisions that actually determine cost, lead time, and how long the installation lasts.
Why "storefront" doors on an apartment building?
The name is misleading. A storefront system is a type of construction, not a type of business — extruded aluminum framing that holds glass or infill panels in a grid, with doors hung inside it. It became the standard for retail frontage, which is where the name came from, but it is now the default for apartment building entrances too.
The reason is practical. Storefront framing is thermally stable, resists corrosion without painting, accepts commercial hardware directly, and can be fabricated to fit an existing masonry opening rather than requiring the opening to be rebuilt. It also comes apart in pieces — a damaged panel can be replaced without pulling the whole entrance. For a building that takes hundreds of door cycles a day, that matters.
Glass, mesh, or both at street level
Full glazing looks best and gives the most daylight, but at ground level in a high-traffic building it is also the part that gets broken. Expanded metal mesh infill in the lower panels — as used on these buildings — keeps sightlines and light at eye level while removing the most vulnerable glass from the equation. It is a deliberate trade of some transparency for a much lower long-term repair bill.
What makes an apartment entry door "fire-rated"
A fire-rated door is not just a heavier door. It is a tested assembly — door, frame, hinges, latch, and closer — certified together and carrying a permanent label that identifies its rating. In multi-family buildings, apartment entry doors are a required part of how the structure compartmentalizes fire and keeps corridors usable for egress.
Two requirements cause most inspection failures, and both are mechanical rather than structural:
- Self-closing — the door must return to the closed position on its own, every time, without being pushed.
- Positive latching — the latch must actually engage the strike when it closes. A door resting against the frame is not a closed fire door.
A missing closer, a painted-over label, or a gap outside tolerance is enough to void the assembly. Learn more about how fire-rated doors work and what they're required to do.
Planning around occupied units
Occupied-building work is a scheduling problem more than a construction problem. Realistic planning means per-unit access windows arranged with management, resident notice ahead of each floor, every opening secured before the crew leaves for the day, and a punch process that catches the doors that need a closer adjustment after they settle.
The Finished Result
Both properties came out of the project with entrances that lock reliably, apartment doors that close and latch on their own, and a single consistent standard across the portfolio — which is what makes them maintainable going forward.
The visual change is significant too. Consistent framing and finish across every building reads as a property that is actively maintained. For affordable housing, that signal matters: it is what residents see first and what tells them the building is cared for.
Spruce Spires on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, with the completed entrance and ground-floor openings.
- Entrance doors that wouldn't latch without being pulled
- Apartment doors failing fire inspection across the portfolio
- Decades of one-off repairs, no hardware standard
- Recurring glass breakage at street level
- Aged entrances on buildings from 1920 and 1963
- Outstanding state fire and building code violations
- Commercial storefront entrances that close and lock reliably
- 500+ labeled fire-rated apartment entry doors, self-closing and positively latching
- One hardware standard across all 15 buildings
- Mesh infill at street level to cut glass breakage
- Consistent finish signalling an actively maintained property
- Every door replaced with residents still in their homes
Why Property Managers Choose Parker Custom Security
Portfolio door work is a different discipline from single-door replacement. It requires fabrication capacity, predictable per-unit sequencing, and crews who can hold a detail consistent across hundreds of openings.
- In business since 2003 — over two decades installing and servicing commercial doors, entrances, and entry systems.
- Built for scale — comfortable moving from one entrance to a 500-door, multi-building program.
- Occupied-building specialists — the standard approach, not an exception; residents are not relocated.
- One contractor for the whole opening — doors, frames, hardware, intercom, and access control, so nothing falls between trades.
- Licensed, bonded, and insured — with experience on publicly financed and code-compliance-driven projects.
- Regional coverage — Northern New Jersey, all five NYC boroughs, and Westchester County.
Planning Door or Entrance Work on a New Jersey Property?
Whether it's one failing entrance or several hundred apartment doors across a portfolio, Parker Custom Security will walk the property and give you a straight scope and estimate — at no charge.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who installs commercial storefront doors and fire-rated apartment doors in Newark, NJ?
Parker Custom Security installs commercial storefront entrance systems and fire-rated apartment entry doors throughout Newark and Northern New Jersey. The company has been in business since 2003 and is licensed, bonded, and insured. Recent Newark work includes the entrance and apartment door package for the Garden Spires and Spruce Spires redevelopment — more than 20 storefront installations across 15 buildings and over 500 fire-rated apartment entry doors. Call (212) 491-5627 for a free estimate.
Can apartment entry doors be replaced while tenants are still living in the units?
Yes. Occupied-building door replacement is standard practice and does not require relocating residents. Work is sequenced per unit — the old door is removed, the opening is prepped, the new fire-rated assembly is hung and hardware-set, and the apartment is secured before the crew leaves for the day. At Garden Spires and Spruce Spires in Newark, over 500 apartment doors were replaced without displacing a single tenant. The keys are advance resident notice, coordinated access windows, and never leaving an opening unsecured overnight.
What is a fire-rated apartment entry door and why is it required?
A fire-rated apartment entry door is a tested assembly — door, frame, hinges, latch, and closer certified together — carrying a permanent label that identifies its fire rating. In multi-family buildings these doors compartmentalize fire and keep corridors usable for egress. Two requirements cause most inspection failures: the door must be self-closing, returning to the closed position on its own, and it must positively latch, meaning the latch actually engages the strike. A missing closer, a painted-over label, or an out-of-tolerance gap can void the assembly.
Why are they called storefront doors if they're on an apartment building?
"Storefront" describes the construction method, not the type of business. It refers to extruded aluminum framing that holds glass or infill panels in a grid with doors hung inside it. The system became standard for retail frontage, which is where the name comes from, but it is now the default for apartment building entrances as well. Storefront framing resists corrosion without painting, accepts commercial hardware directly, can be fabricated to fit an existing masonry opening, and comes apart in pieces so a damaged panel can be replaced without removing the whole entrance.
How long does it take to replace doors across a large apartment portfolio?
Timeline depends on door count, how many buildings are involved, fabrication lead times, and how much daily access to occupied units is available. Portfolio programs of several hundred doors typically run in phases over months rather than weeks, moving building by building and floor by floor so disruption stays contained. Individual apartment doors are completed within a single working day each. Parker Custom Security provides a phased schedule with the estimate so property managers can plan resident notices in advance.
Why use metal mesh infill instead of full glass at the entrance?
Full glazing gives the most daylight but is also the part that breaks most often at street level in a high-traffic building. Expanded metal mesh infill in the lower panels keeps sightlines and light at eye level while removing the most vulnerable glass from the assembly. It trades some transparency for a much lower long-term repair bill, which is why it is common on multi-family entrances that see heavy daily use.
Does Parker Custom Security work in New Jersey, or only in New York City?
Parker Custom Security serves Northern New Jersey alongside New York City and Westchester County. New Jersey coverage includes Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken, Paterson, Elizabeth, Clifton, and the surrounding Essex, Hudson, Bergen, and Passaic County communities. Services include commercial storefront doors, fire-rated doors, door hardware, intercom systems, and access control for apartment buildings, co-ops, and managed portfolios. Call (212) 491-5627 or (800) 717-5815 to schedule a free site visit.
