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Other Ethiopian success stories include Abebe "Abe" Abraham, the founder of CMI Management in Alexandria, which has landed millions of dollars' worth of government maintenance and other contracts since it was started in 1989; restaurateur Zed Wondemu, who started Zed's restaurant in Georgetown and has since expanded into Virginia; and the Ethiopian-born doctors at Blue Nile Medical Center in Alexandria.
It's a younger generation of Ethiopians, however, that is making the biggest strides, community members say. Hailu Fulass Hailu, a professor of linguistics at the University of the District of Columbia who left Ethiopia in 1977 and arrived in the District two years later, said many hardworking Ethiopians younger than 40 "are quite adventurous, and many have turned that into being quite successful."
Many of Hailu's generation came to the United States on education visas and scholarships, he said. "I find it remarkable because the success we have now is not about education," he said. "It's about risk."
The Ethiopian Community Development Council, based in Arlington County, has stimulated business growth by granting micro-loans to entrepreneurs such as Tesfaye. Recent clients include the owners of a gas station and a salon in Northern Virginia, who have expanded and hired dozens of other immigrants.
"With more and more people coming, there's a greater diversity with the types of businesses we're getting and the types of Africans, especially with the young," said Tsehaye Teferra, the council's president.
A chance to expand
Tesfaye's start is reminiscent of the modest beginnings of some of his parking-lot predecessors. One of the local industry giants, Colonial Parking, was started by two young George Washington University graduates on a tiny lot at 25th and E streets NW in the early 1950s. All-day parking cost 30 cents.
In 1998, Tesfaye, then working as a parking valet in downtown Washington, was exhausted and struggling to pay his bills. He was 24 and, as he puts it, "clueless about the world. It was difficult."
After years of saving, Tesfaye took a gamble on a rough-and-tumble stretch of U Street NW, renting an $800-a-month, 20-car lot at 12th and U streets.
Problem was, people thought it was too dangerous to park there. "I would get out on the street and wave people in, but no one would come," Tesfaye said.
But as the revitalized U Street corridor slowly grew, so, too, did Tesfaye's business. The parking lot expanded to include a used-car lot. Valet service was added at a few nearby restaurants and bars. Tesfaye's three brothers immigrated to the United States to join the rapidly growing family business. Tesfaye took out a $35,000 loan from the Ethiopian Community Development Council, and his company took over management of the 1,200-car parking lot on the site of the old Washington Convention Center.
By the mid-2000s, Tesfaye was a success story. He has held fundraisers for the mayor and bought a home in Alexandria. He even bought his mother a restaurant along U Street and named it Etete, her Amharic nickname.
L&R Group, which oversees parking at the New York area's three international airports and at Oakland International Airport in California, reached out to Tesfaye in late 2008. The company wanted to bolster its presence in the Washington area to compete for the Dulles and National contracts.