A Texas-based luxury property management company recently began making headways in the Salt Lake City market. 

Kairoi Residential, based in San Antonio, recently took over the property management duties for a handful of Utah developments, including the Worthington Tower in Downtown Salt Lake City.

The company has also taken over daily duties at a handful of Cole West properties — including the Randi and the Beverly downtown, as well as the lakefront units in Daybreak known as the Pearl. 

To learn more about Kairoi, Building Salt Lake recently spoke with Elizabeth Meyers, the company’s Vice President of Client Experience. Meyers told Building Salt Lake about how Kairoi got into the Salt Lake City market and what sets them apart from other companies, as well as other aspects of the business.

This Q&A segment has been edited for length and clarity. 

So how does a property management company break into a new market, like Salt Lake City?

Everyone has a unique story. For us, we had  an understanding of the markets we’d be willing to be in, and are committed to being a great partner. So we had a third party relationship with a client that had developed some deals in the Salt Lake City area. They asked us to consider going into the market in order to put our touch on the way that we manage communities, on some deals that they felt were just underperforming. 

When we looked at Salt Lake, over a couple of years we had been considering this, and just felt like the maturity of the market was really getting there, and some of the growth and the institutional level quality in apartments and developments in the pipeline, and that’s what we look at to consider whether or not our company specifically would be successful, because we specialize in sort of the A to A+ space in multi-family, and we needed to ensure that there was enough discerning renters with discretionary income who understand and are willing to pay for a higher level of customer service and care from a management company. 

Over the last few years, with all the growth in Salt Lake, we’ve been really excited to see the market mature there. About two years ago we told our client, “we think we’re ready, we think the market’s ready.” And that’s how we initially got into Salt Lake. It was a partnership with Cole West.

You already talked about this a bit, but why expand into Utah and Salt Lake City?

The growth for sure. We are pretty selective in the markets that we choose. We think pretty highly of what I’ll call Sun Belt markets, and Salt Lake has had a really wonderful story of growth and expansion, and is pulling in a lot of excellent businesses and companies who are paying well.

We think through all this growth, there’s enough residents who are moving into Salt Lake who would appreciate kind of a hospitality-level of customer service, which is what we bring. Before 2021, 2022, the overall population and sheer number of apartment buildings probably wouldn’t have been substantial enough for us to be able to come in and make a major difference.

How did you get on board with being the Worthington Tower’s property manager?

This industry is very relationship driven. At Kairoi, we were created to fill a niche in property management. So many of our large competitors across the country are what we would call a generalist — they’ll operate anything for any of their partners. And Kairoi Management was created to specialize in one thing and do it very, very well. And that one thing is A or A+ or luxury rentals — around the top 10% of rents in any market. We offer a hospitality level of customer service. 

So a deal like the Worthington, this is really what we are set up to manage. Salt Lake historically did not have these competitive high rises in the urban core, but now you have multiple, with Astra and Worthington close to each other, and there’s now some very competitive apartment communities.

That really came about through historical relationships. I think they probably weren’t displeased, they just wanted to differentiate themselves in a time where most of those high rent communities were all being managed by the same group. It’s really hard to take one management company and differentiate each one of those buildings from one another. So I really think a decision was made simply to create some differentiation, but also some healthy competition to ensure that we’re ultimately giving the residents of Salt Lake the best living experience that they can have.

Is focusing on A, A+ or luxury units what sets Kairoi apart from other property management companies?

Nationally we oversee about 33,000 units, which, compared to many of our competitors, is very, very small. We’re a boutique management company. We’re in select markets where renters are discerning. They’re willing to pay a little bit more for what we offer, which is a very community driven resident experience.

We train like a hotel, like a hospitality company, and then we combine that with extending amenities outside of the actual buildings themselves. So, think partnerships with local vendors and business owners to ensure that our residents are experiencing the best that their community has to offer, and not just the building they live in. That’s really important to us, and I’d say that is actually our number one differentiator.

It’s just a lifestyle that we’re trying to create for the residents, so they have an opportunity to find their best friends at the building they live in, their favorite coffee shop, their favorite barber. Many residents are new to Salt Lake, and so our goal is to ensure that they love it, and they don’t end up wanting to leave.

What are some other aspects that make for a good property management company? You have to walk a fine line between appeasing both owners and tenants.

Someone who is great in this space is someone who can do both of those things. It’s a partnership between the ownership groups and the residents, ensuring that there’s not one being served without the other. What we think is the most important piece of that puzzle is just finding the best people. We’re really looking for people who have a customer service mindset. We can teach them how to do the job, but it’s really hard to teach people how to care. So finding genuine people who are interested in making a positive difference in the lives they touch — whether that’s the customers, the residents or prospects, vendor relationships in the area, or the ownership groups or clients — is crucial. There should be that same genuine care involved in all those relationships, and that just comes down to hiring the best people. Outside of that, also just being very forward thinking and agile, which we’re able to do as a relatively new company in historically an older industry in general. 

When you look comparatively to many of our competitors, we are quite new in the space, but we hired talent from all over the country who had a much longer tenure and tried to create something really special. We were able to look around and say, “there’s a failure point somewhere — what is it and how do we set ourselves up from day one to avoid those missteps?” We say the main differentiator is people and talent and that willingness to serve.

Of the 33,000 units you manage, how many are in Utah?

We recently took over Slate and Sloan, which are Urban Alfandre deals. So that number is 1,787 units. 

Is there anything else you’d like to add, or is there anything you want people to know about Kairoi?

It’s important to know that we’re trying to offer the best of what Salt Lake and what the state offers. We are so thankful and grateful for those who have welcomed us into the city, and we want to take that responsibility really seriously to ensure that we’re giving back and always a positive part of the community and in the areas that we’re in.

That’s my number one goal, just to ensure we’re representing ourselves that way. We’re a vertically integrated company. We do have investments and development arms, but it’s just our management company that is in Salt Lake. Of 33,000 units that we manage nationally, 75% of those are third party partnerships. So the majority of our business is in that space. 

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