John Yemelos, a real estate developer celebrated for his skill at sizing up property in the New Orleans area and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, died Saturday at East Jefferson General Hospital. He was 82.
Among his projects were the three Lakeway towers in Metairie overlooking Lake Pontchartrain; hotels in Covington, Slidell and Biloxi, Mississippi; and subdivisions and other commercial properties.
“He loved the art of evaluating real estate,” said Nick Moustoukas, a longtime friend. “He could tell you if a piece of property was worth the time and investment and if it had a future. … He did very well.”
“I think he liked the excitement and the thrill of the chase,” his daughter Casie Rung said.
He was a son of the Lower 9th Ward whose parents were Greek immigrants who spoke little English. His father painted houses, and his mother was a homemaker.
Yemelos graduated from Holy Cross High School and LSU in New Orleans (now the University of New Orleans). He earned a law degree at John Marshall Law School in Atlanta.
After graduating, he went to Greece to work for an uncle in the shipping industry, he said in an interview with medium.com. “Once I was engaged in 1967, I realized I didn’t want to work in the shipping industry, and we returned to New Orleans.”
One of his early projects was a 1,400-unit apartment building at the same time he was developing the Biloxi Hilton. He sold the apartment building in 1979 and used the profits to underwrite the Lakeway complex.
He and his brother-in-law, Frank Nicolaides, founded N-Y Associates Inc., a Metairie-based engineering, architecture and planning firm.
Not every investment turned out well. For instance, Yemelos built hotels in Covington and Slidell in anticipation of a highly successful world’s fair in 1984. But the fair declared bankruptcy and Yemelos lost money on those ventures, he told medium.com.
“My father has always taken chances in business,” Rung told medium.com. “By taking opportunities as they came his way is what made him the successful man he is today.”
One of his more recent projects was Omni Storage, a family-owned storage company. The first opened in 2003; there are nine outlets.
An active member of New Orleans’ Greek community, Yemelos was “a kind, honest man who loved his family,” Moustoukas said.
His wife, Despina “Dici” Yemelos, died in 2019.
Survivors include two daughters, Renee Lalla of Madisonville and Casie Rung of Mandeville; a sister, Peggy Nicoladis of Metairie; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements, which are incomplete.