Identity Properties Is Now Cooperwynn Property Management

August 28, 2022
Pamela Manson, The Park Record

When Ehlias Louis and two of his CooperWynn Capital business partners were looking a few years ago to expand their real estate holdings into the nightly rental side of the industry, they discussed whether to start a company from scratch or acquire an existing one.

About that time, Louis was talking to longtime family friend Rob Slettom, owner of Identity Properties, a Park City vacation rental company, about the industry and the partnership’s plans came up. 

The conversation could not have been timelier.

Slettom, who had been running Identity Properties for more than 40 years, was ready to transition into retirement. He sold his company to the CapitalWynn trio and agreed to stay on as a consultant for five years.

Louis and his partners, Stan Kozlowski and Marc Lehmann, kept the Identity Properties name until recently, when the company was rebranded as CooperWynn Property Management. 

There are two other CooperWynn businesses in Park City, CooperWynn Capital, a firm that specializes in hospitality-industry investments, and CooperWynn Real Estate, a boutique residential real estate company. It made business sense to bring Identity Properties under the CooperWynn umbrella, but the rebranded company’s customer service-oriented approach hasn’t changed, Louis said.

“Our goal is to build off of Rob Slettom’s 40-year legacy,” he said. “Same great company. Same great assets. Just a different name to help it align with our other two real estate-focused businesses here in the community.”

The partners have learned a lot from Slettom about the crowded and highly competitive nightly rental property space, Louis said.

Slettom said he had been approached a number of times in recent years by national firms that wanted to buy his company, but a deal with them was never the right fit because he wanted a smaller, more personalized operation.

“What was exciting about CooperWynn is that it was a local company and local folks I have known a really long time,” he said.

Louis grew up in Park City, where his parents moved less than a year after he was born, and has known Slettom most of his life. His grandfather had a unit in the Three Kings condominium development close to the base of Park City Mountain Resort that was managed by Identity Properties, which Slettom founded in 1980.

CooperWynn Property Management serves condominium and other homeowners, who decide how many nights they want to offer their places for rent and when. The company markets the units and takes the reservations.

Most of the business is nightly rentals of condos that are investment properties, Louis said. 

The company also takes care of a small number of homes owned by part-time Park City residents who don’t want to offer them for rent. The CooperWynn maintenance staff conducts periodic 72-point inspections of the properties.

“We make sure the pipes aren’t broken, make sure the HVAC is working, make sure it’s clean so the owners can come and go as they please and use their secondary home and not have to be doing upkeep,” Louis said.

He said the partners made a decision to leave the homeowners association side of the business to focus on helping owners themselves, whether that’s by maximizing revenue or by keeping their property up for their own enjoyment.

“We’re striving to be the best stewards of our owners’ assets,” Louis said. “Probably the minimum price now to get a one-bedroom condo in Park City is pushing over half a million dollars. That’s quite an asset in an owner’s portfolio. We want to partner with the owners and keep their asset maintained.”

Joining Mountain Money are Rob Slettom, former owner of Identity Properties and Ehlias Louis, partner of CooperWynn Property Management.

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Published on Sunday, August 28, 2022