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Every Friday, join us as we dive into the latest in real estate multifamily with David Moghavem, Head of East Coast Acquisitions at Trion Properties. David invites top experts who know the ins, outs, and trends shaping the real estate multifamily market across the nation!
Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just curious about where the next big opportunity might be, Deal Flow Friday brings you the weekly inside scoop on what’s hot, what’s not, and what to watch for in today’s ever-evolving real estate scene.
David Moghavem (02:04)
All right, happy Friday, everyone. I am here with Alan LAZ. LAZ, how you doing? Good. Thanks for joining us in sunny Palm Beach. How's the weather out there?
Alan LAZ (02:12)
How you doing David? Thanks for having me.
Weather's beautiful, looking right out at the ocean. It's gorgeous.
David Moghavem (02:23)
Awesome. I appreciate you carving out some time from sunny Palm Beach to talk about some real estate, some parking, properties, parking and philanthropy. That's what this episode is all about. Everyone, if you don't know Alan, you should get to know him. I'll give a quick intro. Alan is the founder and CEO of LAZ Parking. If you haven't seen LAZ Parking, you're living under a rock.
They're one of the largest parking operators in the country.
managing over 1.7 million parking spaces across 43 states and 535 cities. he's also the owner and operator in commercial real estate, including 900 units in Hartford, Connecticut, and just invested in the Dolby theater acquisition. He's also
on the national board of NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, and Conscious Capitalism, as well as founder of Voices of Hope, a nonprofit focusing on preserving Holocaust survivor experiences. Alan, it's really nice to have you. I gotta give a quick tidbit as well. Your son Jonah is actually the one who came up with the name of the pod, Deal Flow Friday.
I called Celine, your daughter-in-law and my cousin, and I was kind of talking to her about ways to get out there, get my name, personal branding out there, felt like there was a little bit of a void. And your son was like, you know what, David, you would be perfect for a podcast and do something weekly, Deal Flow Friday. And it stuck as soon as he said it. So here we are, we're full circle that we have you on.
Thanks for joining us.
Alan LAZ (04:13)
David, it's my great pleasure and I'm so glad that Jonah came up with that name Deal Flow Friday and the idea for you because you're a great real estate deal maker. You're a brilliant real estate mind. And I think the world has to see that in action and hear you. so I feel honored to be on.
I know how brilliant you are because I know your family and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
David Moghavem (04:44)
Thank you. Thanks, Alan. I really appreciate that. yeah, I mean, your story, I've heard many angles of your story. I'm excited for the audience to hear it as well. And there's so many facets to it. I'd like to first start with maybe the founding of LAZ Parking, the story behind it, and some of the early challenges you guys faced as an entrepreneurial company. So why don't you take the stage?
Alan LAZ (05:10)
Thank you. Well, I've had the honor of starting a LAZ parking back on June 15th, 1981 with my childhood best friends from nine years old and 12 years old. And it's a dream to go into business with your friends. But what's amazing is we started actually valet parking from one single restaurant location in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. And 44 years later.
We're still best friends and partners and have built the largest privately held parking company in the United States with over 4,000 locations and 15,000 amazing people that work with LAZ. And early on, know, business just doesn't go in a straight line. You know, you, there's always ups and downs in business and situations and, uh,
So we had our challenges. did really well early on and there was a real estate crash in 89 90 and we had to fight through that. And it took us quite a long time to pay off all our debt. And, but we persevered and I think through, through adversity and business, you gain strength and you learn how to deal with situations and.
grow through them.
David Moghavem (06:36)
Yeah, what was like the biggest breaking point for you where you, I guess, got to the next level? And you know, usually when you're starting a company, there's like a moment where you're like, wow, this is real. This is something bigger than I thought. What was like that moment for you?
Alan LAZ (06:51)
I think there's different moments in, your trajectory and in business. the first thing I believe is that it's great to have mentors. It's great to have people that believe in you more than you believe in yourself. And along the way, we were lucky enough to have people that believed in us and give us opportunities. And so early on in our career,
Alan LAZ (07:16)
bankers believed in us and gave us loans when you'd say, well, that's amazing that they were able to extend credit to you with your balance sheet, the way it looked. But when you have people that believe in you, you become very lucky along the way. we started buying some parking lots that we bought for
$10 a foot and $20 a foot that became worth $100 a foot and $200 a foot. So that was a fortunate opportunity. then we also had clients that gave us the opportunity to run their parking lots and garages. because we did a pretty good job operating their facilities, wherever they expanded throughout the country, they said, you know, we'd like to take you with us.
Uh, that was another great break for us and great opportunity. I would say the, biggest moment in time or one of the biggest moments in time for LAZ and our career is, we were lucky enough in 2006, um, in 2007, uh, actually work with Morgan Stanley.
to do the first and largest public-private partnership ever by actually privatizing in Chicago the Millennium Garage acquisition of 9,178 spaces underneath Millennium Park on a long-term lease concession from the city. And then we actually went on to privatize.
The meter operations there as well, all 36,000 meters. And we really got national and international recognition based on that deal. And as a result of that, we were able to bring in a parking partner named Vincy, which is now named Indigo, which is the largest parking company in the world as a partner. So.
There are opportunities and moments in time and business when you take a leap or take a chance, it leads to great things.
David Moghavem (09:32)
Yeah, for sure. Were you introduced to Vinci or how did you guys link up?
Alan LAZ (09:39)
Well, so they bid on those deals and lost the deal to us. And they kept calling us afterwards and saying, hey, we've checked you guys out. You're best in class. We're looking for a partner in the United States. Would you please take a meeting with us? we were growing so much. We had no debt. We were just building and growing that we weren't interested.
funny part of the story is that when my daughter, Jessie, was in her junior year of high school, I took her on a father daughter trip to Paris and that's where these guys were based. And I happened to say to her, I just want to go to one meeting. And would you want to go with me to meet them? And she said, no, I'd rather go shopping in the Moray district.
So she took my credit card and went shopping. went to the meeting and at lunch, they offered us 18 times multiple to become our partner on EBITDA and gave us a hundred million dollars of capital to grow non-dilutive to a 50-50 % partnership at LIBOR plus 80 basis points for 10 year acquisition money. So it was a great opportunity.
We were partners for 15 years. We've since bought them out, but we had a wonderful relationship for all those years.
David Moghavem (11:12)
Amazing, Where did you guys first plant your flag? I would say like from your first market.
Alan LAZ (11:19)
Well,
our first markets were Hartford and Boston. I was going to school at University of Connecticut and Jeff Karp, the other founding partner was up in Boston going to Northeastern. So those were our two first cities. then we grew out of New England from there down to the Southeast. entered Atlanta. And our philosophy of growth and so part of our secret sauce was that
We always took our best people and made them partners in different cities and different regions. And as we expanded, people had a nice salary, but they had a percentage of profits of that region. we always thought it was really important to people to think like an owner and be an owner. And so that made a real difference in our growth of our business. today,
David Moghavem (12:08)
Mm-hmm.
Alan LAZ (12:16)
We have over 15,000 amazing LAZ leaders throughout the nation and a number of people. have 28 regional offices and partners within those regions.
David Moghavem (12:28)
Yeah, I think it's important when the people working under your company has autonomy of their work, Where their own boss, they have skin in the game. I think that goes such a long way. It's not just financial incentives, but it's also from within to have the autonomy to create your own destiny in that regard from a career perspective. So that's a great way to structure and that's how...
It's really the only way you could scale to as big as you guys are.
Alan LAZ (12:59)
Well, we have a people first mentality. You know, you're only as good as the people you have working with you. And we love the entrepreneurial spirit and we give people the autonomy to have that entrepreneurial spirit, which is a beautiful thing at LAZ.
David Moghavem (13:15)
Yeah, and I had the honor of sitting next to you one time when you took one of your LAZ meetings where like the bell is ringing and everyone's cheering and closing bell. And I'm like, wow, that energy is incredible.
Alan LAZ (13:30)
Every week we have something called the weekly win call where we celebrate the number of deals each region and each group has in their pipeline and the number of locations they won that week. On average, organically, LAZ is adding eight new locations a week throughout our system. So eight new parking lots and garages come onto our system every week, which is just, it's.
the most out of anyone in the industry. But what I'm also so proud of is that our retention rate happens to be the highest in the industry. So we keep our contracts longer than anyone else as well of our class.
David Moghavem (14:14)
Amazing. Yeah, that's a testament to the work you guys have been doing and operating. How do you guys choose to break into new markets? know, you know, on this, this is a real estate pod. I know we're talking a lot about parking, but I think there are similarities with breaking into markets in general, whether it's parking or real estate or any other asset. How do you guys strategize breaking into new markets?
Alan LAZ (14:38)
So we're in today, we're in 43 states and we're in 535 cities. So we were in a lot of, obviously the major markets where parking is prevalent in downtown CBDs. There's basically, we look at opportunities where there's paid parking opportunities, where there's density.
congestion and need for parking management services. And we also do parking transportation as well. So we do, we have about 700 shuttle transportation contracts at airports and hospitals and campuses for corporate campuses. So we have a very large transportation department, but we do every type of parking, whether it's
hospitals or universities or municipal contracts, stadiums, arenas, mixed use projects, retail. And so we have service line leaders, healthcare. We have service line leaders that are experts that go around the country and assess the different markets and assess the opportunities. And then we all help our regional vice presidents and our regions grow with that expertise for those service lines.
David Moghavem (16:02)
Nice, nice. We'd like to segue a little on how you guys got into LAZ Investments and investing in commercial real estate. You you hear this story a lot. You have a success story in one industry and you start diversifying a bit into other industries and mostly it ends up being real estate. And you're seeing a lot of that capital in the market today in real estate come from different buckets of capital that's trying to diversify.
Talk about how you guys made the decision to start investing in commercial real estate. And specifically, I mean, it's very impressive you guys own over 900 units in Hartford, your hometown. Talk about a little bit how you guys got comfortable investing in your home. What are some of the drivers of Hartford and yeah, overall investment strategy.
Alan LAZ (16:53)
Sir, so LAZ parking, the operating company is a big management company at leases and manages parking lots and garages. We do have a separate division called LAZ parking realty investors, LPRI, that goes out and buys parking lots and garages with special purpose entities. over the LAZ, I would say 17 years since we started LPRI,
We've bought and been involved in over $2 billion worth of parking real estate transactions. And the average returns to our investors have been over 16%. So we've, know, real parking real estate is a great real estate land banking business. And it's almost like urban farming where you can have a covered land play and earn.
David Moghavem (17:47)
Mm-hmm.
Alan LAZ (17:52)
Whether it's five, six, seven, 8%, we like to go into operations where we can buy a parking lot and garage and, Lazify it and, improve the operations and then, you know, raise the net income or EBITDA by a hundred, 200, 300 basis points, by, by running operations better. And then, you're, you hold that land for a higher and better use.
So we've been doing that for a long time. I also have a family office called LAZ Investments where we invest in outside activities, really backing entrepreneurs and other great people in real estate and other businesses because we believe in the entrepreneurial spirit. But one of those investments was with a dear friend of mine who unfortunately passed a year and a half ago.
But he was in the multifamily business and we were 50 50 partners in this company called Lexington, Lexington partners, Lexington property management. And he has Lexington has built and developed and owns 3500 units of multifamily units throughout New England and.
Um, and a little bit in the Southeast, but Hartford being our hometown and we're very bullish on Hartford. There's been a resurgence to, uh, people actually moving and living downtown. And right now there's about, uh, 3000 units, um, of, of multifamily downtown where there never really was much of a, of activity of people living downtown. And those units are occupied, um,
Around 93 % occupancy, 94 % occupancy, and about 30 % of those people that live in those units are from out of state. They might be from New York, Mass, Rhode Island, moving into Hartford. I'm very bullish on Hartford, so I'll say it's the best city in the country. It's a great place to bring up a family, to live.
It's been exciting to see that resurgence of downtown with multifamilies.
David Moghavem (20:22)
What do you think has driven that resurgence in Hartford? I mean, when I was in Hartford it's super charming. It's a great quality of life. But what's bringing renters into wanting to live in Hartford?
Alan LAZ (20:34)
You know, I think the cost of living in Hartford is different than even, you know, obviously New York or Boston, but even Stanford or Greenwich, Hartford has a little bit of a better cost of living. So I think people are moving there because of that. think there's, with remote work, you don't necessarily
to be in a particular place and people can choose to live where they enjoy living the most. And so I think that's part of it. And then in particular, and more particular in Hartford, there's about 35,000 multifamily units in the greater Hartford area. And a lot of them are older. I would say about 75 % were built.
before 1980. And so that when you build something new, there's this really big market driving to go into new product. So I think for all those reasons, you see these units filling up.
David Moghavem (21:52)
I want to jump back into LPRI a little bit that we touched on. So I love the strategy of covered land plays and how you laszify the parking until you find a better, higher and better use for the asset. Are you partnering with developers in that regard or are you guys entitling these sites yourself or is it a mix of both? Would love to hear kind of how do you get it from
you know, an efficient operating, parking operation business to a higher and better use.
Alan LAZ (22:26)
Yes, it's a mix of both, but most of it is partnering with great developers and friends. And we have entitled projects on our own, but we mostly rely on going out to the community and relying on that expertise to bring in the right partners. And that could be a hotel partner. It could be a residential multifamily partner.
David Moghavem (22:47)
Mm-hmm.
Alan LAZ (22:56)
as well, life sciences, which is not as hot today, was hot a few years ago. So it just depends on the city, the opportunity, and most importantly, doing deals with people that are like-minded and like-hearted and you feel like, you know, bring value, add to the table.
David Moghavem (23:22)
Yeah, and are you guys contributing the land as skin in the game going vertical? Are you selling it to them or is it a little both?
Alan LAZ (23:30)
It could be both. We've done all different things. We've put in not only the land, we've put in more equity towards projects. we've just sold the land outright. It just depends on the situation.
David Moghavem (23:45)
Mm hmm. Awesome. then LAZ Investments, know you guys made a considerable amount of investments, including if I'm not mistaken, the Dolby theater was that through LAZ Investments or was that a different sidecar?
Alan LAZ (24:02)
No, that was through LAZ Investments. We were excited. The Dolby Theater is where the Academy Awards are actually happening in the next few days.
David Moghavem (24:04)
Yeah.
Yep.
It's also where your daughter-in-law had her bat mitzvah, just to add that to it as well. So full circle moment again.
Alan LAZ (24:19)
I, yeah. Okay. Full circle. My
daughter-in-law did have her bat mitzvah at the Dolby theater and the Kodak theater at the time. And by the way, by the way, you're going back in time a little bit and you, have a great memory of history. but there will be more and more bar and bat mitzvahs at the Dolby theater. we're bringing that back. but, but,
David Moghavem (24:26)
Kodak theater at the time. Yeah. Yep.
Amazing.
for your grandchildren, hopefully.
Alan LAZ (24:49)
Jonah really led that investment, my son, for our family office. And we were lucky enough to be asked to be one of the, one of five general partners in the deal. And our, our main general partner, Ili Salmaha actually owns the Chinese theater right next door to the Dolby. And there was a lot of synergy in buying that deal. And
But that's another great example of parking. There were two parking lots that also come with that deal. And part of the reason they wanted us to come in was our expertise in parking, obviously. And we were able in a short period of time to double the NOI of those two parking lots. Well, we were able to renegotiate.
David Moghavem (25:36)
Wow, how'd you guys do that?
Alan LAZ (25:45)
a lease and use of space and just really do what LAZ does, right? Operations, right? Revenue control systems, right? Mix of marketing, right? Use of technology. Technology is really big in the parking business now. So it's really falls under tech enabled real estate and being able to have a seamless customer experience is very important. So we spend a lot of money.
on LAZ in e-commerce and something we call Lazgo and improving the operations to the consumer with a seamless customer experience with things like license plate recognition or paying for parking on your phone through an app. And it's what most of the consumers want today out there. And so we've been very successful in taking over operations and
and just creating more dollars to the bottom line.
David Moghavem (26:48)
Nice. And was that what I guess brought you guys into this investment as kind of like a strategic partnership or was this opportunity you guys were considering and then digging into the details you saw that there was an opportunity boosting the NOI in the parking.
Alan LAZ (27:04)
Yeah. So, one of my dear friends that we've partnered with, over the years in both parking and multifamily, is a gentleman named Sherwin Gerald out of Chicago, who's a great investor, great person. And he actually invited us to be part of the deal. a thinking we'd be great partners, but, but B, you know, having the expertise around the parking, I think he.
noticed and saw that there was an opportunity to maybe do better there. But so much, so many of the deals that you go into, you you want to go into with people you trust and you like, and you have an opportunity to do great things together and being a strategic partner where you can, people have other value that they could bring in and certain expertise is really just a great thing.
to look for and to do in business and deals.
David Moghavem (28:05)
Such a good point. mean, you need to have partners that you trust, that you can relate with and you want to do business with and then having them to also be strategic where they're adding more than just dollars and cents goes such a long way where now you're not only doing business with a group like yourselves that's reliable and bringing in capital, but you're also boosting the NOI of one of the
Alan LAZ (28:10)
Thank
David Moghavem (28:33)
Aspects of the deal itself, which is the parking so you're creating you're also creating value not just contributing capital but creating value
Alan LAZ (28:41)
You mentioned earlier that I was involved in Conscious Capitalism. Just to explain a little bit, Conscious Capitalism is an organization that was founded by John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods and a few other wonderful people. And we've been practicing unconsciously been practicing Conscious Capitalism for our entire careers because Conscious Capitalism
believes in elevating humanity through business and believes in taking care of all your stakeholders. And it's really important in a business from my point of view to take care of your employees, your vendor partners, the community and the environment. And when you do all those things, you're actually going to be much more successful. And when you could find like-minded and like-hearted people to do business with.
You're going to be much more successful as well. So I think that I really would encourage people to look into conscious capitalism and be part of that movement because we've proven over the years that you're a lot more profitable. You're a lot more successful if you take that conscious capitalist approach.
David Moghavem (29:58)
Yeah, how do people get a hold of looking into conscious capital?
Alan LAZ (30:04)
Well, there's a CEO conference that happens every year. There's chapters throughout the United States. If you went to the Conscious Capitalism website, you'd be able to look into it. Or you can reach out to me and I'm on the executive committee and the board. We'd love to bring in new members and partners into Conscious Capitalism.
So I'm at Alaz, A-L-A-Z at LazParking.com. And I'd be honored to talk to anybody about conscious capitalism.
David Moghavem (30:39)
Amazing, amazing. I'll put that in the show notes as well. know, Alan, one of the things that impressed me the most meeting you is your ability to connect and network with so many people. And every time someone meets you, I feel like you have this intuition in your mind of like, how can I connect this person with that person? How can I get things done? And that's what I love and admire about you. Talk.
to the audience a little bit about like, how do you come up with that mentality? Like, what is the drive behind that of not only meeting people, but connecting people with one another in order for other people to succeed?
Alan LAZ (31:24)
Yeah. So thank you for asking that because I believe the most important thing in business is for business to be a force for good. And being a force for good is connecting people, helping people. And when you help people unconditionally, it comes back to you 10 times. I firmly believe that I've seen that in my life. So it's not, you know, a transactional thing where if I do this for you, you have to do this for me.
If you're just giving of yourself and help others, it's going to come back to you. And our mission at LAZ is creating opportunities for our employees and value for our clients, but creating opportunities for our employees and helping our employees is why we wake up every day. And when you have happy employees that are taken care of, they're going to take care of the customers and the clients and everything is going to work out. I think just to get a little deeper.
That DNA or that feeling comes actually from my parents. My dad is a rabbi and the greatest spiritual leader in the Hartford community where I was born and raised and still live for the LAZ 69 years. He's 94 years old. My mom's 89. Both my parents are Holocaust survivors. They have an amazing story of survival, but my dad was saved.
in a selection line facing death at 11 years old, separated from his mother, father, three brothers and a sister. And he was going to go to this pit to die. But this woman that he had never met before risked her life and her two daughters, ages seven and five to save this 11 year old boy that she had never met. She had a nursing certificate, which meant life, which meant she wasn't going to go to the line to die.
And she pretended that he was her son. And after she did that, he never saw her again. After that, his mother got killed, two brothers and a sister got killed. He escaped into the woods and miraculously he found his father and one brother and they lived in the woods for two years to survive. Eventually he made it to United States, through a lot of different struggles. And he was fortunate enough to find that woman.
David Moghavem (33:47)
Wow.
Alan LAZ (33:47)
that
saved his life and ended up marrying her daughter, my mother, the seven-year-old girl in that selection line. So I believe that anything's possible in life. You never, ever give up. And when we all have a chance to bring our humanity to the moment to help somebody, you do it.
David Moghavem (34:09)
That's incredible. That's incredible. I think that's the DNA that everyone sees when they meet you. It really does come from that. the idea that, and you your dad wrote an amazing book that I actually read, Faith and Destiny, and it really does come from the same cloth as your ability to, I guess, serendipitously connect other people with one another.
Alan LAZ (34:39)
Yeah. And my mom's book as well was written by a New York Times bestseller author named Rebecca Franco. And the title of that book is Into the Forest. So my dad wrote his, my dad's just finishing writing, by the way, his 16th book at 94 years old. And it's called From Darkness to Light. And it's How to Fight Anti-Semitism from a Holocaust Survivor's Point of View.
David Moghavem (34:56)
Wow.
Alan LAZ (35:06)
But my mom's and dad's story of survival, Faith and Destiny and Into the Forest is now gonna be made into a feature film. in the middle of that and we have a company named Film Nation helping us do that, which is really exciting.
David Moghavem (35:18)
Wow.
I can't wait for that. That's gonna be amazing. That's gonna be amazing. I would say, you know, you faced a lot of adversity. Your family's faced a lot of adversity in the Holocaust. You faced a lot of adversity building up LAZ parking. I'm sure there's been many stories that you can share on and on about adversity. How do you face adversity?
Alan LAZ (35:22)
Yeah.
Well, it's interesting, you know, this, pandemic, you think about what we just went through most recently. you can imagine that our business went down 95 % overnight because nobody was, parking. No one was going to offices. No one was going to events. Very few people were flying. So the parking industry took a huge hit and, you know, it's a time.
But there's a silver lining when you go through things like that. You really see the spirit of people helping each other come through. quite honestly, we had clients during that timeframe that had said to us, hey, know, the lease payment you owe us, we're going to go back to our bank to get help. Don't worry about it.
We'll renegotiate, we'll tack on payments to the back end. We'll figure it out. You guys have been so good to us over the LAZ 10, 20, 30 years that, you know, it's time for us to be good to you. In fact, we just moved to a new office about a month before the pandemic started. the guy, the company that did the moving for us.
we didn't move that far and we didn't take most of our old furniture. had all new things. the guy that did the moving for us at a $40,000 moving bill. And without me even asking him, he sent me a note and said, you know, the $40,000 bill that you owe, I'm writing off and completely because you know, you've done so much over the years for the community and for us that.
you know, I, I want to please accept this as a gift. And this is, that's an example of, and we, we fully intended to pay. but this wonderful gentleman out of the goodness of his heart knew what we were going through and, just took action. So, you know, through adversity, you gain strength, you know, you, you understand who you want to be in a foxhole with.
David Moghavem (37:52)
Mm-hmm.
Alan LAZ (38:04)
You, there's a lot of good things that could happen when you go through things. Everyone in business has had, and even personal people have ups and downs in life. And, you know, you have to fight through those things and do it with respect and helping others. And when you do it, you have, find the way to fight through that.
David Moghavem (38:26)
Yeah, and I think it stems from the relationships you've created. And those relationships are genuine, right? If you have formed a relationship where you're trying to expect something from someone else, it can be detected, it could be ruined. But if you're forming these genuine relationships, connecting people just for the sake of, you know, connecting and bringing other people up without expecting a return, that's when these moments happen where they see
All right, you're in a bind, you're in a tough time. Let me help Alan out the way that he helps others out without expecting anything in return. I think that's important in business as well when, yeah.
Alan LAZ (39:06)
I
think it's really important. I'm glad you brought it up. And first thing I want to say, David, is that when you asked me, you know, would I be willing to do this podcast as an example? Of course I wanted to do it because you're such a great guy and you've built such great rapport with me and anyone you touch that you say,
I want to go out of my way to help David. That's an example, but I think paying it forward in business is really important. And when you can help somebody or do something for somebody unconditionally, sometimes you don't realize the ripple effect that that could happen. It came half because when people, when you give something to somebody and they are able to grow and succeed and benefit from it,
The good news is most people want to do the same thing for others. So paying it forward is a very important concept in business. And, and I've seen that in action where, you know, you help people be successful and they help others and there's a huge ripple effect.
David Moghavem (40:23)
Yeah, and just to pull the thread a little on that, know, one thing we ask everyone is what advice you would give to the next generation? Again, paying it forward. In regards to advice and paying that forward for now, what advice do you have for young entrepreneurs in this time?
Alan LAZ (40:44)
Yeah.
I think of how much time do we have? No, but I believe that first and foremost, I believe strongly in the entrepreneurial spirit and real estate people are creative. They're entrepreneurs. I think believing in yourself and going for it is really is really an important element of
David Moghavem (40:50)
Haha
Alan LAZ (41:13)
diving in the water and taking a chance. But also, don't be afraid to ask for mentors. think mentorship is so important. Getting advice from people that have been through different situations or call it the elders or people that, you know, in your industry or someone that you want to learn from. A lot of times if you just feel comfortable and asking somebody,
they'd love to impart that wisdom on you. I think, being able to surround yourself by great people and great mentors, and then, treating people with respect, you know, having a commitment to people, being honest, being full of integrity builds that trust and relationships. talked about relationships and, I will tell you business to me is about relationships. You know, you.
And, I love talking to everyone. love meeting new people. love the power of connection. And I think, you know, it's, it's a gift to be able to meet people and learn from people. you know, I believe in hugging everyone. I believe that, you know, you always want to look at the good in people and find the good in people. And, and so, you know, just, and, you know,
things aren't always going to work out on day one. So hard work and perseverance and having a never ever give up attitude is also extremely important. you know, we all have an opportunity to put our mark in this world and make our world a better place. And I would also recommend that giving back to community and getting involved in charity.
There's so many amazing charities and there's so many great causes and you can't forget to give back. We have the LAZ charitable foundation and we have a day of giving on our anniversary on June 15th and we're now making that a week of giving and we have so many LAZ people that are not only giving money, but more importantly, giving of their time and effort.
to volunteer and make a difference in people's lives. Our charitable foundation, besides the United States, also has helped people in seven different countries and thousands of people. We've been able to touch lives, not just in this country, but outside of our country. And people, by the way,
David Moghavem (44:00)
Amazing.
That's, yeah, that's amazing.
Alan LAZ (44:11)
want to work with companies and with people that have a higher purpose. And I think it's really important for people to understand what your higher purpose is and what's your why. And, know, our higher purpose is about creating opportunities to help people. And you have to live that vision. And when you do, great things happen for you.
David Moghavem (44:17)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I think there's a misconception a bit when you can only be involved in philanthropy and giving back if you have the money to do so. And in order to have the money to do so, you need to focus on your career first. And then maybe you do philanthropy later in your life when you have the means to. I think that's a completely wrong understanding of philanthropy. It comes from a mindset from day one, which I've seen in you.
Alan LAZ (44:42)
We can go.
David Moghavem (45:07)
When you have that mindset, then you have that purpose, it attracts others to work with you because they know that they're working with someone with a higher purpose and it breeds success innately. Philanthropy doesn't come from, is not a result, but it's part of the journey and it's part of also connecting and it breeds success through that higher purpose. So I think it's something that you just got to have the mindset day one.
And sure, over time, as you make more money, you can maybe donate more than you were in the beginning, but it's a mindset from day one. If you can't give money, you give time and you spread the word. And so there's so many ways to help and give yourself a purpose rather than just stroking a check.
Alan LAZ (45:56)
Yeah, no. And we have to encourage people to do philanthropy to give to charity. I was lucky enough to have a wonderful gentleman in our community. His name was Frank Stavis when I was, I guess, 22 years old or just starting out in business. I started when I was 20 and he advised me and helped me see that light and
I remember I gave my first $1,800 check to charity, which was a lot of money back then in my mind. so, you know, but when you give, you get, like I said, and you just, it's a gift for you. So the power of charity and giving actually helps you more than it sometimes even helps the charity.
David Moghavem (46:33)
Mm-hmm.
Well said, well said. Alan, it was amazing having you on. This was a great episode of Parking, Properties, and Philanthropy. And if anyone wants to get a hold of Alan, I'll put his email in the show notes. He's an amazing person to connect with and talk to and learn from. And I'm blessed now to call him family. So thank you, Alan.
Alan LAZ (47:21)
You
are family and I'm really proud of you. You're doing great things. You're going to continue to do great things and every community that you touch is lucky to have you. So thank you, David.
David Moghavem (47:39)
Thanks, Alan. I appreciate it. And maybe next time we'll get Jonah. Thank you. We'll get Jonah on here as well. I know he's up to some really, really impressive stuff. So we'll save that for another episode.
Alan LAZ (47:41)
Appreciate you.
Yeah,
don't forget about ALOT Media, Jonah LAZ.
David Moghavem (47:52)
A lot media, exactly. he's ready
to present, I'm excited to dive into that. Alan, thank you so much. Enjoy Palm Beach. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks.
Alan LAZ (48:00)
Take care. Thanks a lot.
Take care.