Black-Owned Security Company Celebrates Grand Opening Of New South Side Headquarters

John and Dr. Denitra Griffin (center), owners of AGB Investigative Services, recently celebrated the opening of their new, 16,000-square-foot facility in Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Photos Credit: Carl R. Ankrum
John and Dr. Denitra Griffin (center), owners of AGB Investigative Services, recently celebrated the opening of their new, 16,000-square-foot facility in Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Photos Credit: Carl R. Ankrum

Black-Owned Security Company Celebrates Grand Opening Of New South Side Headquarters

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

AGB Investigative Services recently celebrated the grand opening of its new headquarters located on 7545 S. Western Ave. in Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. In addition to a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony, AGB Investigative Services also hosted a job and resource fair for community members on-site at the new location.

AGB Investigative Services provides expertise in all aspects of security, including physical and cybersecurity. The company was founded in 2001 by John Griffin, Jr. and his wife Dr. Donitra Griffin.

“AGB Investigative Services has been around for 18 years and is a full-service security, investigative, background, cybersecurity, and fingerprinting organization. The acronym AGB means Always Giving Back and we started in the basement of our first home and since then, we have grown to be licensed in eight states and employ over 800 people,” said John Griffin Jr.

The new facility in Auburn Gresham was a $2.5 million project that included a full renovation of an existing building. The Griffins, who were both raised on the south side of Chicago, said that when they were looking for a location for their new headquarters, they were glad to be able to find the space they needed on the south side where they hope to be able to provide an economic boost to the neighborhood and surrounding communities.

“We were very intentional about staying in Chicago and on the south side to be accessible to people and the community on the south side. We had a challenge trying to find real estate that would accommodate our needs,” said Dr. Denitra Griffin. “We wanted to make sure that we had a brand new place that looked good and made our employees feel good and be proud to be a member of the AGB Family.”

The Griffins said that they found Auburn Gresham to be the most accommodating community when it came to meeting their needs for space and accessibility for their employees.

In addition to operating security services, AGB Investigative Services also has a philanthropic arm that consists of the AGB Institute and the Always Giving Back Foundation. These two entities are also housed in the new headquarters and offer scholarships, mentoring, and workforce training programs for youth along with training programs for adults.

“To date, we have provided $45,000 worth of academic scholarships. We are not just

one-and-done, we don’t just give kids scholarships and walk away, we stay committed to them through the process and tend to their social-emotional competencies so they are incentivized to complete college and earn a degree,” said Dr. Denitra Griffin. “We also have our family first program where we realize that our members have young families so we provide them with resources to help remove barriers that interfere with their ability to go to work.”

To learn more about AGB Investigative Services, visit www.agbinvestigative.com.

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