Johnson Controls Inc. has sold off a business unit related to its building efficiency business to a Maryland-based construction management and professional services company.

Versar Inc., based in Springfield, Va., announced Wednesday it has inked a deal to buy Johnson Controls Security Systems, a facilities security and management company based in Gaithersburg, Md.

The $20 million cash deal is expected to close by Sept. 30, and is in line with Johnson Controls’ (NYSE: JCI) corporate strategy of focusing on its energy storage and building efficiency businesses.

“The acquisition of JCSS, which is well known for its substantial security expertise, will be a great strategic fit for Versar, extending our client base, and enabling us to offer additional products and services to our existing clients,” said Tony Otten, CEO of Versar (NYSE: VSR). “An important element of our growth strategy is to leverage our service capabilities to generate more work with our existing clients and to more effectively compete for new customers and projects in the new economic environment.”

JCSS does access control, video, and some perimeter work, but it didn’t perform other core JCI services (such as HVAC) so it was considered non-core to the refined manufacturing and building-control focus of Johnson Controls.

JCI has refined its business focus in the past 12-18 months, and this deal is part of that strategy, McManus said. “JCI has done a number of divestitures and one or two acquisitions to take them more deeply into the manufacturing and building controls.”

JCI still has a large security integration business that does about $300 million in business annually. Security integration is still core to JCI because its goes well with building controls.