US Investigations Services is branching out in Grove City.

After the first of the year, the background investigation company will spread out in an additional 39,000 square feet of leased space when it opens the Grove City Operations Center Annex in the former Ames building at Pine Grove Square. It will be an extension of the Grove City Operations Center on Lincoln Avenue.

The Pine Township building has been vacant since February 2002 when Ames Department Store closed its doors.

Since USIS came to Grove City in the late 1990s, it went from a downtown storefront to additional downtown space, to buying the Cooper Industries office building on Lincoln Avenue. USIS has housed its Grove City Operations Center there since 2000, according to Bill Winters, vice president of corporate development for USIS. As the demand for its work -- offering tailored security and professional staffing support to government agencies and commercial entities -- has grown, so has the need for more space.

"Some of our operations are housed (on Lincoln Avenue), we do training there and we have a lot more work," Winters said. "We had to look for more space to house more people."

There are a couple of reasons the space will work well for USIS, Winters said. "Parking, first. The other is it's wide open. It enables us to put in a lot of work stations for the processes we're required to do."

USIS will use the western two-thirds of the sales floor area and both sides of the mezzanine. The remaining space will remain available for lease.