‘We Look Out for Our People’

“I’ve always liked to protect and guard people. I also like to help. Being a doorman is another type of security, just a different title. We’re responsible for people’s safety, who is supposed to be here—whether it’s visitors or workmen—nobody just walks in. We look out for our people making sure that they are safe.”

Othmane Serhane works as a doorman at 20 Exchange Place. He began working security at the historic landmark in 2005 when it was a commercial building. After two years, it transitioned to residential, and “the building’s owners approached me and gave me an offer to become a doorman.” He spent his first year as a doorman at 67 Wall Street and then returned to the New York historic landmark where he’s remained for the past 16 years.

Located in New York’s Financial District, 20 Exchange Place is a restored Art Deco rental building in a neighborhood rich with culture, dining, and entertainment.

“The location is pretty perfect,” said Serhane.

“The building is really big so you have a wide variety of very different people and mixed nationalities,” he said. “We have good tenants and most of them are great people. We have a lot of kids in the building. They’re born here and I like seeing them grow up.” He likes that residents see him and his co-workers as family and show their appreciation, and meeting the new people who move in as well.

Serhane also enjoys the brushes with celebrity. “Sometimes famous people pass through as guests,” but others come for work. “We got to experience the filming of Inside Man with Denzel Washington [as well as Clive Owens], and a few episodes of Spider-Man were shot here.”

He says the best days on the job are always Fridays because he’s finished for the week and gets to spend two solid days with his own family, which includes Najat, his wife of 15 years, and their three sons, Zakiaria, 13, Yassine, 7, and Amir, 5.

“I enjoy that time. I cook. I like nature. I like to go by the ocean. And I like fishing.” Since he shared that sport with his boys and they’ve begun catching fish, they now like it, too.

Serhane says it’s his family that motivates him and keeps him grateful.

“I am thankful for my health, the health of my children, and my wife; that I have a job and can provide for my family. I’m thankful for everything. I don’t think about what I’ve lost. I look at what I have.”