LAZ Parking announced today that it has partnered with leading platform advisory and investment firm,
Applico, Inc., to support the digital transformation of its services and the parking industry. Applico will help LAZ incorporate
"Proximity on Demand" services or PODS into its traditional parking operations. PODS is a proprietary platform of adjacent products and services that allows parking lot owners and landlords to enhance customer loyalty and unlock new revenue streams by delivering high-value, real-time services to customers.
Applico is based in New York and has offices in San Francisco. It partners with industry leaders like LAZ to build viable platform businesses by adopting technologies, products, or services. It creates value by enabling direct and frequent interactions between customers and producers.
LAZ Parking is one of the nation's largest parking companies. It operates over 1.2 million parking spaces in 35 states and 442 cities across the United States and is ideally suited to deliver on this model. LAZ's PODS strategy leverages its network of parking garages and other facilities to introduce technologies that enhance existing services or introduce entirely new ones. Examples include a hands-free parking experience or electric vehicle charging stations. Possible new services include ghost kitchens, rooftop solar panels, and lots for urban farming, micro warehouses, same-day delivery, last-block delivery, and other last or "LAZ" mile delivery solutions.
Applico will facilitate LAZ Parking's investment in this space and dramatically accelerate partnerships with technology providers, startups, and enterprises over the next 12-24 months. Distribution and staging, logistics, delivery, electric vehicle deployment, and storage are among the initial areas of research and investment.
"We chose Applico to partner with us on this journey because they are innovative, creative, and effective at helping enterprises capture new, tech-enabled business models," said
Alan Lazowski, Chairman and CEO of LAZ Parking. "We intend to remake LAZ into America's most digital parking operator. The future of parking lies in deploying these technologies in ways that transform traditional parking locations into logistics hubs serving the needs of a diversified, increasingly digital economy. We see a huge opportunity for partnerships across the entire spectrum of technology and economy; players large and small."
Applico's team of tech entrepreneurs and finance professionals will engage on behalf of LAZ with startups, technology providers, and enterprises across a range of verticals. These partnerships will initially serve LAZ's network of parking partners but ultimately can be sold as a service to others in the parking industry.
"Because of their size, reach and reputation, LAZ is well positioned to broaden its array of services for both enterprises and consumers," said Applico Founder and CEO,
Alex Moazed. "By embracing strategic partnerships, LAZ can use its national scale to provide Proximity on Demand services that will transform the industry for the next 20 years."