Commercial Locksmith in Erie, PA

Erie's business districts and their doors

• Downtown. Downtown Erie is a street grid around Perry Square, with the Renaissance Centre as its tallest building. In a multi-tenant building, the owner or manager normally controls the exterior doors and any master key system. A tenant who wants a suite lock changed should clear it with management first, so the new cylinder fits the building's keying.
• The Bayfront. Redevelopment there brought the Bayfront Convention Center, hotels, Dobbins Landing and Perry's Landing Marina. Exit devices and access control at venues like these are commercial work, and any change to either should leave the doors opening from inside without a key.
• West 18th Street and Parade Street. West 18th Street is the commercial corridor of Little Italy. The city's 2020 East Bayfront Neighborhood Plan describes Parade Street as a historic commercial corridor and proposes help with façade improvements. Storefront doors, especially glass ones with narrow stiles, take specific lock bodies and cylinders, so if a façade project replaces a door, confirm the lock fits before ordering.

Key control by district

The same problem, keys nobody can account for, calls for different fixes in each district.

• In a downtown multi-tenant building, a master key system lets management open every suite while each tenant carries one key. When a key is not returned, rekey the doors it opens rather than waiting for it to turn up.
• A hotel or venue on the Bayfront has many doors and many users. Codes or cards can be updated without cutting any keys when someone leaves.
• A storefront on West 18th or Parade Street can start with a written log of who holds which key, and collect keys on a person's last day.
• Restricted keyways, where key blanks are controlled, limit unauthorized copies in any of these.

What to include in a request

• The building and the door or suite, and who controls it: owner, manager or tenant
• Written authorization from the owner or manager if you are a tenant
• The door type (glass storefront, hollow metal or wood) and photos of the hardware on both sides
• Whether the door has an exit device or an access control reader
• How many keys are out, and how many are needed

Pennsylvania Locksmith Pros takes service requests from homes, businesses and drivers in Erie. See commercial locksmith and the Erie page.