May 21, 2026
The Art of the Team
Epic Investment Services has managed 33 Bloor Street East in Toronto since 2008. Over that time, the building has required the full range of what a well-resourced management team is expected to deliver. Capital planning. Tenant management. And recently, a significant heating system replacement that tested the firm's collaborative model and produced a result recognized by the Canada Green Building Council as a best practice example in its Retrofits NOW case study showcase, and featured in The Globe and Mail.
A Team Built for the Asset
Epic's approach to staffing a building like 33 Bloor starts with a straightforward principle. Match the depth and experience of the team to the demands of the asset. For a Class A mixed-use tower in midtown Toronto, that means a group with genuine institutional knowledge of the building and the client.
The operations supervisor has been with 33 Bloor since construction and knows its systems at a level that only comes with years of direct experience. The property manager oversees day-to-day operations. The asset manager, based at Epic's downtown Toronto office, has maintained a close relationship with the asset and the ownership group over a significant period. Morgan Prudham, Senior Manager of Sustainability and ESG, and Epic's national services team are engaged on broader mandates across the portfolio but have been particularly involved at 33 Bloor.
Regular touchpoints bring together the VP of Real Estate Management, the property manager, and other relevant team members. Issues are surfaced and addressed before they become problems. When major capital decisions approach, the conversation starts well in advance.
How the Team Is Structured
What makes that group function as a unit comes down to how Epic defines accountability at the building level. Nada Sutic, Vice President of National Sustainability and National Services at Epic, describes the framework the firm uses across its portfolio.
"We talk about the property manager being the mayor of your town," Nada says. "While there's a capital team, leasing, contractors, and vendors, the property manager has to lead everyone toward the common goals and ensure everyone is accountable to them, and then they are accountable to the asset manager and client. If something goes sideways, we're a team, and we figure it out. And, as the mayor, you're ultimately accountable."
The point is not to limit what anyone around the property manager can contribute. The goal is to ensure there is always one person who owns the outcome, so that when sustainability, project management, or engineering is brought into a conversation, the right expertise connects to a decision and drives action.
The Decarbonization Project at 33 Bloor
When the building's primary heating system approached the end of its useful life, the team had a decision to make. A like-for-like boiler replacement was the conventional path. Given the ownership group's sustainability mandate and the capital investment involved, Epic believed a more strategic approach was warranted.
The property management and operations teams engaged Morgan's sustainability group early in the process to assess the options. A consulting engineering firm was brought on, and three scenarios were developed and costed: a conventional replacement, an option that optimized operating costs and capital outlay while achieving meaningful greenhouse gas reductions, and a full decarbonization of the heating system, the most capital-intensive option but the one that delivered the greatest long-term performance and emissions benefit.
The Epic team gathered the right level of information and brought key decision makers into one room. Epic's sustainability team led the conversation alongside the consulting firm and collaborated with property management, asset management, and the ownership group to work through the three scenarios. Technical details were translated into business terms in real time. The ownership's sustainability targets and financial priorities were established clearly, with all parties present.
"It was clear on what the client's intentions were, what their targets were, where their priorities were," Morgan says. "And then we were able to translate the technical input from the engineering and put it into the business conversation."
At 33 Bloor, the collaborative approach produced a modernized, high-performing heating system, a measurable reduction in the building's carbon footprint, and an ownership group whose confidence in the management team was reinforced throughout the process.
Communication throughout the project was tailored to each stakeholder. Ownership, with a high degree of trust already established with the asset management team, received updates at key decision points. The property management team tracked progress closely on a weekly basis, managing tenant communication and building operations throughout the construction period.
Nada Sutic
VP, Sustainability & National Services
Morgan Prudham
Senior Manager, Sustainability & ESG