HBJ Photo | Joe Cooper
A LAZ Parking garage at 41 Lewis St. in downtown Hartford.
Updated: May 28, 2020
LAZ Parking furloughs 300 employees due to COVID-19 losses
HBJ Photo | Joe Cooper
A surface parking lot in downtown Hartford, 10 Ford St., operated by LAZ Parking.
By Joe Cooper
Hartford parking giant LAZ Parking has furloughed 300 employees at various locations as demand for parking has plummeted in Connecticut and across the nation due to COVID-19-related shutdowns, a state labor filing shows.
LAZ in a letter to the state Department of Labor (DOL) on Wednesday said it was forced to reduce staff at work sites reporting to their regional offices because of “unforeseeable business circumstances” relating to the COVID-19 outbreak. Employees were furloughed between March 15 and April 6, it said.
A list of employees impacted by the staff reductions was not disclosed.
The company, now headquartered at The Gold Building in downtown Hartford, expects the furloughs will be temporary, but said it “cannot guarantee that any furloughed or laid off employees will return to work due to the impact of COVID-19.”
LAZ said not all employees reporting to regional offices will be impacted as regional offices remain partially open. The number of furloughed employees impacted may change, the company added.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, LAZ reiterated to HBJ that it expects the furloughs will be temporary.
“We remain optimistic that business levels will begin to resume in the coming days and weeks as the state begins to re-open,” said Eric Daigle, vice president of people and culture at LAZ. “ To date, we have already brought back over 50 Connecticut furloughed employees. We anticipate the number of LAZ employees being called back to work will increase exponentially in the near future.”
LAZ outlined its recent staff cuts roughly two months after the company initially announced it temporarily furloughed an undisclosed number of employees as it sought financial relief from the federal government.
The company at the time also announced LAZ's founding partners would not take any pay for at least 90 days, and have established a $1 million employee relief fund.
In 2019, LAZ was involved in some of the largest commercial property deals in downtown Hartford. That includes the $70.5 million purchase of Hartford’s iconic Gold Building.
This story has been updated to include additional comments from LAZ Parking
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