It’s been 20 years since Kenneth Zorabedian started United Parking LLC in 2005. At the time, he was a 25-year-old parking cars for upscale Federal Hill restaurants before deciding it was time to start his own valet service.
He started the business with only $1,500, but he eventually was able to purchase a few parking lots. In the two decades since launching, the company has employed more than 500 people in Rhode Island.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic happened and upended his entire business, causing Zorabedian to get creative and open other ventures such as food delivery and vending machine services to offset the losses. Now, five years since the pandemic began, and with quarantine and social distancing restrictions having been lifted, Zorabedian said he’s able to refocus on growing his parking business.
No longer simply just a valet service, United Parking now offers everything from surface lot management to traffic control for concerts, events and construction sites.
“I find underutilized land that could be used for parking,” he said. “Take, for instance, a church in Providence, where parking is scarce. That church may only use their lots on Sundays. Office buildings? Well, if the employees all leave at 5 p.m., why let an empty lot go to waste? We now help them set up the infrastructure and provide the operations for surface lot management to get parking there when they don’t need the lot. That can turn an empty space into a reliable income.”
He said United Parking still offers “very select valet parking” among its core services.
And the numbers show that his business pivots have paid off. United Parking has annually generated $2 million in revenue for the last three years, he said.
“Even still, I’d say we’ve only just now started recovering from the pandemic,” he said.
Despite business changes over the years, United Parking remains a small, family-run company, just the way it started. Zorabedian’s brother, Robert Zorabedian, runs operations and employee training as director of the company, and Zorabedian’s cousin, Gary Nahabedian, manages human resources.
“Other companies don’t care about the community; they care about the bottom line,” Zorabedian said. “We were born and raised here. We’ve hired hundreds of people from the community, many of whom got their first job with us and went on to grow into leadership roles, from policemen to financial advisers and even starting their own local business. That community impact means a lot to us.”
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Zorabedian said he had to lay off all but six of his 150-person staff at the time, before finding a lifeline to keep operations afloat and the business from going under.
“We had to turn all our valet drivers into food delivery people when COVID hit. We were able to pay our people with Paycheck Protection Program money and because of that, we were able to keep the business going,” said Zorabedian, who started DASAP – which stands for Delivery As Soon As Possible – in response to a lack of valet and parking work.
The strategic pivoting didn’t stop there. Zorabedian also got into the vending machine industry to further diversify his business amid the pandemic shutdowns. He launched Providence Vending LLC in May 2020, exactly 15 years after founding United Parking “right as the world changed.”
“With valet services paused and a need for better vending clear, we pivoted,” he said.
Zorabedian also opened a bodega in 2022. He now operates the bodega, Providence Vending, along with United Parking.
“I have never worked harder in my life,” he said.
OWNER: Kenneth Zorabedian
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Valet and parking management
LOCATION: 365 Smith St., Providence
EMPLOYEES: 60
YEAR FOUNDED: 2005
ANNUAL REVENUE: $2 million
