Greater than 50 years in New Orleans as an entrepreneur, outstanding actual property businessman, and philanthropist, former Latter & Blum govt Bob Merrick died April 28 on the age of 80. Merrick died after a protracted battle with most cancers. Funeral preparations have but to be introduced by the household. He’s survived by his spouse, Sheryl, and his 4 daughters from earlier marriages.

Merrick bought Latter & Blum in 1986 and grew the business and residential actual property firm into one of many largest brokerage companies within the Gulf South. In 2019, Merrick succeeded from CEO to Chairman as his daughter Lacey Merrick Conway was promoted into the management place. In April 2024, Latter & Blum was bought to New York-based Compass, a publicly traded firm.

On the time of the sale, Latter & Blum had 3,100 brokers, and closed $3.6 billion in annual gross sales quantity, rating the agency No. 59 within the RealTrends500 rankings by annual gross sales quantity. To place these numbers into perspective, about 40 years earlier, when Merrick bought the corporate, Latter & Blum recorded roughly $350 million a yr in gross sales quantity

A local New Orleanian born in 1944, Merrick graduated from Tulane College in 1967. Whereas in faculty, Merrick started his greater than 50-year profession with Max J. Derbes, the place he remained for eight years. The concept of being an entrepreneur got here rapidly in his profession as in 1973, he fashioned his personal firm, Robert W. Merrick, Inc., Realtors, which handed appraisal and brokerage with a specific emphasis on business and industrial properties.

Merrick helped facilitate over $150 million in brokerage offers for main industrial websites alongside the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to Plaquemines Parish. He additionally developed and bought Brookhollow Enterprise Park and Airport Industrial Park. Merrick owned probably the most warehouses within the metropolis by 1985, and in that very same yr, Merrick fashioned East & West Jefferson Properties, which represented one of many largest funding portfolios within the space, together with Elmwood Industrial Park, the previous MacFrugal’s web site in New Orleans East, and Ashton Plantation Estates. Merrick and his companions later bought the business properties to Equitable Life Assurance Firm in one of many largest industrial transactions of that point.

Then, in 1986, Merrick’s actual property empire started.

“I obtained fats, dumb, joyful and really bored. After which joyful once more as a result of I heard that Latter & Blum was on the market,” mentioned Merrick in a former “Driving Forces” story by CityBusiness.

Following the acquisition of Latter & Blum, which was based in 1916, Merrick additionally acquired C.J. Brown Realtors in Baton Rouge (1995); Noles Frye Realty in Alexandria (2009); Van Eaton & Romero in Lafayette (2012); Realty Associates in Houston (2015); and Gardner Realtors (2021), the second largest actual property firm in Louisiana, behind Latter & Blum. Merrick additionally integrated a mortgage and insurance coverage firm, Important Mortgage and Latter & Blum Insurance coverage, respectively.

In 1994, Merrick was honored as “Strategic Associate of the Yr” by Mobil Oil Firm’s Mobil Worldwide Actual Property subsidiary.
In a former interview with CityBusiness, Merrick’s recommendation in actual property was: “Should you’re on the brokerage facet of the enterprise, be an asset to each side. Do the deal, your commissions will observe. On the possession facet, it’s all the time been you don’t have to make the final nickel – preserve your tenants joyful, preserve your rents beneath market and keep occupied.”

First Particular person to Present $1 Million to United Means of Southeast Louisiana

Past his vital monetary investments and contributions to actual property, Merrick was additionally identified for his philanthropy and volunteer time to New Orleans nonprofits. Demonstrating his dedication to staff’ households, Merrick yearly granted 15 scholarships, together with his scholarship fund having offered near $1 million to greater than 500 college students.

In 1995, Merrick served as marketing campaign supervisor for the United Means of Larger New Orleans and as chairman of the March of Dimes. He additionally served on the board for the United Means, later turning into its board of trustees’ chair. Merrick obtained the Alexis de Tocqueville Award from the United Means in 2004. In 2014, Merrick turned the primary Louisianan to hitch the United Means Million Greenback Roundtable, giving a $1 million present to the United Means of Southeast Louisiana.

Merrick’s philanthropy extends to a number of different nonprofits. He served as board chair for the Southeast Louisiana American Pink Cross, and his work with the Pink Cross earned him the Nationwide Pink Cross Humanitarian of the Yr Award. His involvement with Junior Achievement earned him an induction into their Enterprise Corridor of Fame and with a Lifetime Achievement award.

Merrick served as chairman of the Enterprise Faculty Advisory Board and board of trustees’ chair on the College of New Orleans. The college now options the Robert W. Merrick/Latter & Blum, Inc./Realtors Endowed Chair in Actual Property. In 2005, he obtained the Chancellor’s Medallion for Distinguished Service from UNO.

St. Martin’s Episcopal Faculty offered Merrick with the Martin de Excursions Award in 2002, and their not too long ago devoted “Merrick Visible Arts Middle” stands as one other testomony to his assist.
In 2015, Merrick obtained the Weiss Award from the New Orleans Council for Neighborhood & Justice and the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He was honored as a

Miracle Maker at Ochsner Well being’s 2021 Moonlight and Miracles Gala and was actively concerned with the Son of Saints group.

He and his spouse Sheryl donated $1 million to MD Anderson Most cancers Middle to assist ongoing most cancers analysis and remedy.

In 2010, CityBusiness honored Merrick with a “Driving Forces” honor. In 2015, Gambit honored Merrick as “New Orleanian of the Yr”, and in 2019, Merrick was awarded the celebrated Instances-Picayune Loving Cup honor, given to just one particular person a yr.