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Young parking lot czar is the face of Ethiopian success in the D.C. area
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Scott Hutchison, a senior vice president at L&R Group, said Tesfaye's back story was a draw, and he compared U Street Parking to profitable parking firms started by Ethiopian immigrants in San Francisco, where L&R subsidiary Five Star Parking has contracts.
"I heard Henok's story and I knew he was the right one," Hutchison said. "It was impressive. And I know I could be competing against him within the next 10 years."
The partnership formed, Hutchison and Tesfaye moved to develop a strong business plan for the airports contract, which is chosen through a sealed-bid process by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. The trick to beating the incumbents, Hutchison and Tesfaye said, was to keep the management fees low.
The Five Star-U Street management-fee quote for National was about $160,000 a year less than the previous contractor's. For Dulles, the quote was about $585,000 a year less. Among four finalists, the firm received the worst score for its operations, management, customer service and personnel plans. But the low management fees essentially won the contracts, Hutchison and Tesfaye said.
Airports officials said that the scores were close and that they expect customers not to notice much different in parking operations.
The companies that U Street replaced -- AeroLink Parking in Falls Church and District of Columbia Parking Associates -- had to lay off hundreds of workers this year, but the vast majority were hired by Tesfaye's group, airport officials said.
Tesfaye said he is not resting. The big fish, he said, is managing a parking garage for a high-rise office building.
"That's where the real money is, but it's very tough," Tesfaye said, as his brother Yared, 31, nodded in agreement. "We want to be a big player."
Just in case, Tesfaye said, he has a fallback plan: He keeps a valet parking attendant's red jacket in the back seat of his car.