Does the company installing our door hardware need a New York licence?

If it is in the business of installing or servicing security or fire alarm systems, yes. New York State licenses security and fire alarm installers through the Department of State, Division of Licensing Services. Ask for the licence and confirm it on the Department’s online lookup before work begins.

Our building already has lobby turnstiles. Does GateStride replace them?

No. Turnstiles and the lobby desk stay with the landlord and the building’s card. GateStride works on the access control for your own suite and interior doors, so your people can use their phone upstairs while the building’s credential still gets them through the lobby.

Does New York City’s biometric law apply to our office door?

The city law is aimed at commercial establishments such as shops, restaurants and venues that collect customers’ biometric data. Phone unlock collects none. If you ever add face or fingerprint readers, check the state SHIELD Act and the city rules with your counsel first.

Do I have to replace my access control to use GateStride in New York?

No. GateStride overlays the system you already run, reading its events and calling its own unlock. Your readers, controllers, locks, request-to-exit and fire release stay exactly as they are.

Does GateStride have an office in New York?

No. GateStride is software, managed remotely, so we serve the New York City area without a local office. The small node at each door is installed by a licensed security integrator, often the one who already services your system.

Will it lower what we pay each month?

It can, if you pay per-user or per-mobile-credential fees, buy replacement badges, or spend staff time issuing and revoking them. Use the savings calculator with your own invoices to see the figure for your office; if you pay none of those, the case rests on the features instead.

Can we see who has left the building without anyone swiping out?

Yes. Exits are recorded from the enrolled phone, watch or tablet people carry, while the door keeps releasing freely as it does today. That gives a live who's-inside list and a one-tap roll call during an evacuation.

Locations / New York, NY

Office access control in New York — the suite door you already have, without the badge bill.

Whether your company leases a floor in a Midtown tower, a loft in the Flatiron District, a suite near Wall Street or space in Downtown Brooklyn or Long Island City, the lobby turnstiles belong to the building and the suite door is yours to run. GateStride works on that suite system as it is: people open the door with their phone, nobody needs a new badge after the first week, and you can see who has actually left when the floor empties.

Request a New York demo Work out your savings

Where New York companies keep their offices — and their doors

Most office space in the city sits in Manhattan’s business districts: Midtown and its Grand Central and Penn Station surroundings, Midtown South from Chelsea through the Flatiron District and NoMad, Hudson Yards on the far west side, and Lower Manhattan around the Financial District. Small and mid-size firms are spread through all of them, often in pre-war and mid-century buildings rather than the newest towers. Across the rivers, Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO and Long Island City hold creative, tech and back-office tenants, and suburban offices cluster in White Plains, on Long Island and across the Hudson in New Jersey.

The pattern inside these buildings is consistent. The landlord runs lobby security: an attended desk, visitor registration and, in larger towers, turnstiles tied to a building card. The tenant runs the suite entrance and any interior doors — the server closet, the records room, the partners’ wing — usually on a controller the build-out contractor installed years ago. As older stock is converted or re-tenanted, more buildings mix uses floor by floor, and the tenant’s own suite system is the part that is theirs to fix.

Two credentials for one commute. Staff already carry the building’s lobby card. Adding a second suite badge means two things to lose. With phone unlock on the suite door, the only plastic left is the one the landlord issues.
Hybrid schedules and shared floors. Many New York firms run fewer desks than people and sublease or share space. Credentials need to change often, and per-user fees on the suite system keep charging for people who come in twice a week.
Freelancers, interns and visitors. Agencies, finance and media offices bring in contractors and seasonal staff for weeks at a time. Granting phone access for a fixed period and letting it lapse beats printing a card and hoping it comes back.

Where New York offices overpay for access control

In New York the rent is the number everyone watches, so the cost of running a suite door rarely gets scrutinised. It is spread across licence renewals, badge orders and the office manager’s time, and it grows with every hire.

Per-person fees

Cardholder, user or mobile-credential charges that rise with every hire, even though no door changed.

Badges that walk out

Lost, broken and never-returned cards and fobs, each one a purchase and a gap until it is disabled.

Office-manager hours

Issuing badges on day one, chasing them on the last day, and letting people in who forgot theirs.

The replacement quote

New readers, controllers, wiring and subscriptions proposed for a system that still works.

GateStride connects to the system you already own as a single integration user and manages your people itself, so staff who move to phone access stop adding per-person credential costs on the underlying system, and nobody needs a badge printed. Put your own numbers into the savings calculator to see what that is worth for your office, and check your vendor’s licence terms with your integrator.

Knowing who is still inside, in New York

New York office workers are used to fire drills: high-rise office buildings in the city hold them regularly, and floor wardens are expected to account for their own people. In a tower with dozens of tenants, a warden counting heads in a stairwell or at a meeting point usually works from memory or a printed list, which is out of date the moment someone works from home or leaves for a client meeting.

The same question comes up on ordinary days: a building-wide alarm, a power problem that empties the floor, or a storm that sends people home early and leaves a manager wondering whether anyone is still in the office. A record of who has left turns that into a list rather than a guess.

Most card systems log people coming in, not going out, because exits release freely. GateStride records who left from the phone they carry, without a swipe, and turns a fire drill into a one-tap roll call. How exit tracking works.

Exit tracking supports accountability. It is not a substitute for free egress, your evacuation plan or your certified fire and life-safety systems.

Rules that apply to New York offices

Before anyone touches a door, three things are worth knowing. This is general information, not legal or life-safety advice; confirm specifics with the agencies below and your own counsel.

Checking your installer is licensed in New York

New York State requires anyone in the business of installing, servicing or maintaining security or fire alarm systems to be licensed by the Department of State, Division of Licensing Services, under Article 6-D of the General Business Law. The licence runs for two years and involves fingerprinting, qualifying education and an exam. Companies doing work on their own premises with their own employees are exempt. Before a contractor touches your doors, ask for the licence and check it on the Department of State’s licensee lookup.

Source: NY Department of State: Security or Fire Alarm Installer

Who enforces door and egress rules in New York

New York City has its own codes. The NYC Department of Buildings administers the 2022 NYC Construction Codes, and the Building Code within them contains the egress and access-controlled door provisions; the FDNY enforces the NYC Fire Code and is involved where electrified locks interact with fire alarm release. The state’s Uniform Code applies elsewhere in New York, not in the five boroughs. Any change to how a door locks or releases goes through your landlord and, where required, the Department of Buildings. GateStride does not change door release.

Source: NYC Department of Buildings: 2022 Construction Codes

Privacy and biometric law in New York

New York State has no Illinois-style biometric privacy statute. The SHIELD Act treats biometric information as protected private information, so a business that holds it must keep reasonable safeguards and report breaches to the Attorney General, the Department of State and the State Police. Separately, a New York City law on biometric identifiers requires certain customer-facing businesses — retail, food and drink, entertainment venues — to post notice if they collect customers’ biometric data. Phone-based unlock on its own does not collect biometrics; adding face or fingerprint readers would bring these rules into view.

Source: NY Attorney General: SHIELD Act

GateStride’s default uses device credentials and non-biometric person detection, so no biometric data is collected. Facial recognition is optional, off by default, and offered only where it is legally compliant and you choose to enable it.

Works with the systems New York integrators install

You keep your vendor and your integrator. GateStride overlays Kantech EntraPass, Honeywell, LenelS2 OnGuard, Software House C•CURE, HID and Brivo by reading their events and calling their own unlock. See the integrations, the architecture, or how an upgrade compares with ripping everything out for a cloud platform. Integrators working in New York commonly support platforms such as LenelS2, Genetec, Brivo and Salto; if your suite runs one of them, GateStride works on top of it.

For New York security integrators

If you service suite and tenant access control across the five boroughs, Long Island or Westchester, most of your accounts already have working hardware and an owner who wants phones on the door without a new platform. GateStride lets you sell exactly that into buildings you already maintain: no rip-out, no re-wiring of the lobby relationship, resale margin on each site, and the customer remains your account. Partners are listed in our directory by city and by system.

New York’s security community meets through ASIS International New York City Chapter · New York Burglar & Fire Alarm Association (NYBFAA).

See the partner program

Questions from New York offices

Does the company installing our door hardware need a New York licence?: If it is in the business of installing or servicing security or fire alarm systems, yes. New York State licenses security and fire alarm installers through the Department of State, Division of Licensing Services. Ask for the licence and confirm it on the Department’s online lookup before work begins.
Our building already has lobby turnstiles. Does GateStride replace them?: No. Turnstiles and the lobby desk stay with the landlord and the building’s card. GateStride works on the access control for your own suite and interior doors, so your people can use their phone upstairs while the building’s credential still gets them through the lobby.
Does New York City’s biometric law apply to our office door?: The city law is aimed at commercial establishments such as shops, restaurants and venues that collect customers’ biometric data. Phone unlock collects none. If you ever add face or fingerprint readers, check the state SHIELD Act and the city rules with your counsel first.
Do I have to replace my access control to use GateStride in New York?: No. GateStride overlays the system you already run, reading its events and calling its own unlock. Your readers, controllers, locks, request-to-exit and fire release stay exactly as they are.
Does GateStride have an office in New York?: No. GateStride is software, managed remotely, so we serve the New York City area without a local office. The small node at each door is installed by a licensed security integrator, often the one who already services your system.
Will it lower what we pay each month?: It can, if you pay per-user or per-mobile-credential fees, buy replacement badges, or spend staff time issuing and revoking them. Use the savings calculator with your own invoices to see the figure for your office; if you pay none of those, the case rests on the features instead.
Can we see who has left the building without anyone swiping out?: Yes. Exits are recorded from the enrolled phone, watch or tablet people carry, while the door keeps releasing freely as it does today. That gives a live who's-inside list and a one-tap roll call during an evacuation.

See it on your New York doors

A short demo on the access control you already have — no rip-and-replace.

Request a demo Work out your savings

Sources

Last reviewed October 2026. Trademarks belong to their respective owners; GateStride is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by any access-control manufacturer.