Better late than never: Tracy Selman trades Manhattan for Park City’s small town living

Photo: Neighbors of Park City // Kristen Pierce.

“Here I feel like I accomplish something every day,” said Tracy Selman during a conversation we had earlier this fall at Barclay Butera’s Heber Avenue showroom, a gorgeous space replete with layered textures, thoughtful lighting, and sleek accents. When we first met, Tracy, who serves as the design firm’s showroom manager, greeted me with a wide, welcoming smile–a warmth and comfortable-in-her-skin nature that was affirmed over and over again as we chatted in the showroom’s comfortable conference room that day. Tracy explained that, though many of the firm’s Park City projects fall into what’s been coined as a ‘mountain modern’ aesthetic, “that style really means so many different things to different people,” she adds. “The process our designers engage in is completely unique to each client. They are involved from the architectural planning phase onward to create a home that functions for each individual family we work with. Our designers don’t follow trends, but work to create timeless, sophisticated, and functional homes based on how our clients live their lives.”

Tracy’s role at Barclay Butera is focused on lending behind-the-scenes support to the firm’s Park City design team (a second Barclay Butera showroom and design team is based in Newport Beach, California). Essentially, that means organizing, executing, and checking off the laundry list of tasks required to create a customized interior design plan for clients from around the world; tasks that include (but are not limited to) helping write design proposals, sending and receiving client contracts, coordinating with vendors, and serving as the facility manager. “I am much more of a background person,” she said. “I love being creative and being part of a team and being the best, but I don’t need or want to be the one in the spotlight.”

Tracy began honing her talent for making others shine soon after graduating from college. Having grown up on Long Island in a close-knit family with two sisters, she chose to stay nearby and landed in Manhattan to begin her career in the event planning space. The Altman Building, Lincoln Center and The Rainbow Room are among the famed New York City venues where Tracy pulled off weddings, engagement parties, bar mitzvahs, and myriad of other glittery celebrations––many of which were attended by celebrities like Lady GaGa, Tony Bennett, and Maroon 5.

Outside of work, Tracy’s twenties and early-thirties were an enviable blur of absorbing New York City’s vibrant culture and nightlife. “It was a great time to be in the city,” Tracy recalled. “I’d wake up, go to work, go out, and then do it all over again the next day. And then on my days off, I loved how I could decide what part of my personality I’d like to explore,” she said. “If I was feeling particularly intellectual, I’d spend a Sunday afternoon wandering through one of the city’s dozens of museums. Or if I wanted to get in touch with nature, I’d head to Central Park.”

Despite loving every minute of her years in the “city that never sleeps,” the appeal of Manhattan’s relentless pace eventually wore thin, which is, serendipitously, when Tracy met her husband, Jason Selman. “I was 34 and he was 44 when we were set up on a blind date through my sister’s best friend,” she said. “We met at a bar in New York and started dating right after that.” Though both she and Jason had had more than their fair share of bad relationships before they met, “I am very grateful we met each other later in life,” Tracy said, “because by the time we got together, we had both developed solid values for commitment and fully understood the seriousness of marriage.” After dating for two years, in 2016 the couple got engaged. But rather than following the post-city-life path many of their friends had followed–moving to the Manhattan suburbs–they instead started hatching a plan to move to Park City. 

Jason grew up in New Jersey, but had more than a passing familiarity with the West when he and Tracy met. He spent a two-year post-college stint in Aspen where he worked a little and skied a lot. And then, after moving to New York, spent several ski vacations in Utah. “My first guys’ ski trip to Park City was in 2006,” Jason said. “My friends all started having kids and so going to Park City from New York was much easier than going to other Western ski destinations.”  

Jason, who considers himself a “serial entrepreneur,” got to know Utah further through a very unique post-economic downtown opportunity that came his way in 2008. “I invested in an animated film called The Legend Of Santa Claus,” he said. “The studio was in Salt Lake City and I started coming out here frequently for that, and for more ski trips. I fell in love with both Park City and Salt Lake City. I actually came out in 2015 for a month to see how relocating here alone would be, but I felt it would be too hard to meet someone in Park City. Then right after that I went back to New York and met Tracy.” 

For Jason, now a developer and real estate agent with Christie’s International, Park City is much more than just a ski town. “Unlike Aspen, it isn’t isolated from the world and doesn’t feel like Disneyland,” he said. “It has a great community and easy access to a major city with culture. And unlike Aspen and many ski towns, I felt like PC is a place where we could raise our kids.”

Jason brought Tracy to Park City for the first time after they’d been dating for about six months. She was immediately smitten and after one more visit, agreed to make the move. “We decided to give it a one-year trial and, nine years later, we’re still here and loving it,” Tracy said. 

It did, however, take some time for Tracy’s born-and-bred city girl tendencies to adjust to small-town living. “I hadn’t driven a car for about 16 years before we moved here and I can still remember how terrified I was at first when I drove down to Salt Lake,” she said. “And I also remember being shocked by how dark it is here at night. Before I knew my way around I would regularly get lost because of the lack of street lights. But now I love how clearly you can see the night sky.”

Tracy and Jason started planning their 2017 wedding at Stein Eriksen Lodge months before they made the move to Utah. But then shortly after arriving, the catering sales manager the couple had been working with at Stein’s accepted another role in California. “I was still looking for a job at that point and felt it was an opportunity that was meant to be,” Tracy said. She applied for the position and was hired as the luxury hotel’s wedding planner just a few months before her own wedding. “I got to plan my own wedding, which, if I’m being honest, was stressful, but I loved my time at Stein’s,” she said. “The team there is amazing. I really enjoyed getting to know everyone there personally while we worked together to create some incredible events.”

And then two years after saying ‘I do,’ Tracy and Jason realized what she described as a “profound transformation:” the birth of their daughter, Stella, followed 16 months later by their son, Jake. “Though having kids at age 39 and 40 is pretty unusual in Utah, I don’t think I could have done it any earlier,” Tracy said. “I’ve always been a late bloomer and it wasn’t until we decided to get pregnant that I knew I was ready.” 

The realities of parenting while holding down her weekends-and nights-intensive job at Stein Eriksen Lodge set in soon after Jake arrived. “I worked weekends pretty much all summer and Jason’s work also bleeds into the weekends, which made juggling childcare a challenge,” Tracy explained. Through one of his development projects, Jason learned that the showroom manager at Barclay Butera had announced her retirement. Tracy applied for the job and accepted the offer to become the firm’s showroom manager in 2021. “Barclay Butera is an amazing place to work where I get to scratch my creative itch while being part of a fantastic team,” Tracy said. “And Barclay himself has been so generous in supporting causes that matter to Jason and I, like fundraisers at our kids’ school and the Live Like Sam Foundation, which empowers our community’s youth to reach their full potential.” 

Now, the Selmans are fully integrated into Park City life. Earlier this fall Tracy organized a reception to celebrate the recent remodel and rebrand of Barclay Butera’s Park City showroom and, when she’s not at work or with her family, loves attending Megaformer classes at Park City’s Peak 45. Jason is enjoying serving his real estate clients through Christie’s International and continues to develop spec homes in and around Park City. And Stella, 6, and Jake, 4, are enrolled in the Spanish Dual Immersion program at Parley’s Park Elementary. “As a family, we do all the Park City things,” Tracy said. Among their favorites are hanging out at Trailside and Willow Creek parks, walking and pedaling along the Rail Trail, skiing at Park City Mountain and attending community events, like the Miner’s Day Parade and Howl-O-Ween on Main Street. 

When asked if she misses New York City, Tracy is quick to respond. “Sure, I miss my family and things like the food and convenience of the city, but Park City is unlike any other place,” she said. “The community here has become so important to me and I feel so lucky to live in such a wonderful place to raise our kids. We visit New York frequently, but Park City has become home.”