Epic Investment Services is now 100 per cent employee owned, with managing partner and chief executive officer Craig Coleman and managing partner, chief financial officer and chief operating officer Laetitia Pacaud becoming the firm's majority shareholders.

Coleman and Pacaud were first named managing partners and took increased ownership stakes in Epic one year ago.

“Since 2017 the majority ownership of Epic has always been employees alongside a large Canadian pension fund,” said Coleman, who cannot identify the fund due to confidentiality agreements. 

“In July of this year, after a strategic ownership transition, the pension fund shareholders sold their ownership interest in Epic to the existing shareholders. So today, Epic’s now fully employee-owned, with both Laetitia and myself as the majority shareholders.”

Coleman has been with the company since 2017 when his company, StoneCap Realty Partners, and Alasco merged with Epic Realty Partners to form Epic Investment Services. 

Pacaud joined the company in 2019 through a merger with MDC Group, where she was executive vice-president of business development. MDC Group is no longer part of Epic.

Significance of ownership change

Epic provides real estate, portfolio, asset, investment and fund management services to clients across Canada. The vertically integrated company manages close to 22 million square feet of leasable space and has about $13 billion of assets under management across Canada and the United States.

Epic has 188 real estate professionals operating from offices in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

Pacaud believes being completely employee-owned will appeal to pension fund clients and help Epic attract and retain quality employees.

“We've got a very strong team with deep expertise and that experience that they bring for us is a real key to the success of the organization,” Coleman added. “We're really proud of our team and we want to continue to provide them with opportunities to be able to grow.”

Coleman said the ownership change will solidify Epic’s commitment to its clients and employees. 

“And with respect to the Canadian pension fund, we've actually strengthened our business relationship with them,” he added. “We've added additional engagements and, going forward, both groups are looking forward to expanding our business relationships and partnerships together.”

“The decision was driven by a desire to increase our agility in the market,” Pacaud told RENX. “Predominantly our clients are pension funds. So having that employee ownership servicing the pension funds, we think it’s a better strategy for us going forward while strengthening the relationship with the exiting Canadian pension fund.”

Epic’s priorities and recent activity

Epic’s focus will remain on growing its involvement with retail, industrial, office and multifamily residential real estate, according to Pacaud.

While Pacaud said Epic’s commitment to “quality, governance and performance” will remain unchanged, it will potentially look at new investment vehicles to support client desires to enhance their existing portfolios.  

“We are going to build out, over time, a broader investment management platform that will lead to growth,” Coleman said. 

Epic and Woodbourne Capital Management have partnered on five projects over the past two-and-a-half years, and in April they acquired a 313,511-square-foot small-bay industrial portfolio in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent from KingSett Capital for $66.5 million.

“We supported an institutional client on the acquisition of a 400,000-square-foot industrial portfolio in Montreal and we on-boarded that property in May,” Coleman said of other recent company activity.

“On the property management side of our business, we've taken on the management of Manulife Place in Edmonton, which is an 861,000-square-foot office building. In addition to that, we've seen growth in both office and industrial property management, and we've on-boarded over a million square feet in Alberta just this year.”

Vancouver’s seven-storey, 170,551-square-foot Renfrew Centre office building recently received the Zero Carbon Building - Performance Standard certification from the Canada Green Building Council, which reflects Epic’s commitment to sustainability.

Optimism about future growth

“We have a number of activities and opportunities that we're exploring with all of our clients to align with their investment focus and strategic direction,” Coleman said.

“Some assets are going through a bit of an evolution, or they're looking for more proactive management, and Craig and I believe there's an opportunity — given our hands-on approach, vertical integration and a seasoned team across Canada — to really be able to execute and add institutional clients that we have on our targeted list,” Pacaud said.

“We're really good at building partnerships and relationships and unlocking opportunities, so I see us continuing to do that,” Coleman concluded.