Epic Commercial Realty lays off brokers; firm’s future in question

The brokerage lost the lease for its Soho office this month, according to a former broker

Epic Commercial Realty's Ido Tzaidi and Sasi Elya (Credit: Epic-CR)
Epic Commercial Realty's Ido Tzaidi and Sasi Elya (Credit: Epic-CR)

Epic Commercial Realty — the middle-market brokerage that has gone through several management reboots in recent years — has effectively shut down.

The company’s president, Ido Tzaidi, sent an email to the firms’ roughly 15 brokers and sales associates on Dec. 10 informing them that he was disassociating himself as the company’s corporate broker, one former broker told The Real Deal. In other words, because he holds Epic’s license, any brokers working under him could no longer work for the company.

The announcement came roughly two weeks after employees were told they had to work from home because Epic lost the lease for its Soho office at 850 Broadway, the broker told TRD. Tzaidi did not respond to requests for comment.

When asked if the company had been shut down, Sasi Elya, Epic’s CEO, told TRD that, “Nothing has been decided yet.” He declined to comment further.

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Epic’s roots trace back to 2001, when Erez Itzhaki founded the brokerage as Itzhaki Properties. Izhaki left in 2006 to start his own development company, Itzhaki Acquisitions, and in 2013 Yona Edelkopf took the reins at the brokerage, which he renamed the following year as Epic Commercial Realty.

But Edelkopf’s stewardship of the company didn’t last long. In 2017, he sold the company to senior brokers Elya and Tzaidi.

Epic, like many other commercial brokerages, has struggled to produce amid the slumping commercial sales market. The company brokered $155 million worth of deals in 2016 across 58 investment sales, landing it in 33rd place on TRD’s annual investment-sales ranking that year. That figure, however, was a 43 percent drop from the previous year, and Epic hasn’t made it on the ranking since.

Other established brokerages have recently been forced to shut down. Last year, Eastern Consolidated shut down after nearly four decades in business — the victim of a poorly timed expansion plan compounded by the market downturn.