Setting search center with PlaceSearch.js

I see that the PlaceSearch.js uses the Search Ahead API. I am trying to figure out how to set the location to prioritize nearby matches. The closest I see is to use "useDeviceLocation: true" in the constructor. This seems like a pretty basic feature for something like this, yet I have been unsucessful at finding how to do this with PlaceSearch.js or another MapQuest API.