9/20/22 Christian Henrich and Sarah Bothma assist Buffalo-based Allpro Parking in acquiation by New Orleans-based firm.
As seen in the Buffalo News
Buffalo-based Allpro Parking acquired by New Orleans firm
- Jonathan D. Epstein
- Sep 20, 2022 Updated 9 hrs ago
Buffalo's biggest parking lot operator has been acquired by a New Orleans-based firm.
Premium Parking did not say how much it paid to acquire an 80% stake in Buffalo-based Allpro Parking, which operates 25 parking facilities in Buffalo. In all, Allpro operates 130 parking locations in 12 cities, including Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Rochester, Pittsburgh and Syracuse.
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Allpro founder and CEO Richard A. Serra retains a 20% stake in the company and will remain with it as an executive, while his former partners – including Ciminelli Real Estate Corp. CEO Paul Ciminelli – sold their shares to Premium.
"I am partners with them at this point," Serra said of Premium. "I have new partners."
The merger combines Premium Parking's technology with Allpro's expertise in operations and community-focused service, allowing Premium to speed up its national growth. The acquisition gives Premium more than 750 locations in more than 60 markets, with more than 700 employees. It expands the company's presence across the Midwest and Northeast.
“We’re impressed by Allpro’s incredible service-driven culture, led by the talented team’s dedication to their clients,” said Premium President Ben Montgomery. “We share the same ethos, having spent the past two decades solving the underlying problems of legacy parking systems.”
The deal, which was completed on Sept. 1, culminates a yearslong effort by Allpro to market itself to new investors that could help the company achieve its growth objectives, Serra said. Over the last few years, he said, Allpro has "talked to a couple of other companies," but had "much closer conversations with Premium" that led to negotiations, offers and ultimately "an amicable deal for everyone."
"We were always looking for strategic partners that could help us recapitalize the company and grow in markets that we were planning to grow at a better pace, and most of all keep up with the times with technology and innovation," said Serra, who will become a vice president of Premium. "That's what we liked with Premium Parking. They have spent many years and many dollars to create a phenomenal technology platform that was very appealing to us."
Premium Parking calls itself the parking management industry leader in "full-stack" digital parking. The company's technology allows customers to find and reserve parking online, and then pay with the Premium Parking app or scan with CameraPay through Apple Pay or Google Pay. It also offers secure employee or residential parking using Cloud Permits, and features monthly parking subscriptions as well as free validated visitor and customer parking.
Allpro offered similar features but mostly through third-party providers. "Theirs is a little bit more advanced, and since it's an internal program, it'll be smoother for us to manage and operate," Serra said. "It'll make it more seamless to the user."
Allpro will adopt the Premium brand name gradually over the next year, with all locations transitioning by the end of 2023, Serra said.
Founded in April 2000, Allpro operates 135 parking locations with 50,000 spaces in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, including Jamestown, Akron, Beachwood, Ithaca, Yonkers, Mineola, Ronkonkoma and Wyandanch. The company manages lots, maintains facilities, and offers shuttles and valet parking for clients in the airport, commuter, healthcare, hospitality, municipal, office, stadium, university, residential and private event markets.
It employs nearly 400, all of whom will remain with the new company.
