Nickolas N. Shammas, 87; Auto Dealer
Nickolas N. Shammas, civic leader and owner for almost 50 years of Felix Auto Center, Chevrolet-Cadillac, with its famous Felix the Cat symbol, along with other automobile dealerships under the corporate name of Downtown L.A. Motors, has died. He was 87.
Shammas died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a five-month battle with lung cancer, said his son-in-law, Darryl Holter, chief administrative officer of Shammas Group and president of the Figueroa Corridor Partnership, a business improvement district Shammas helped establish.
Born in Pittsburgh and brought up in Los Angeles, Shammas started refurbishing and selling used cars when he was still at Fairfax High School and later Santa Monica College. During World War II, he manufactured war materiel, but returned to selling used cars at war’s end.
In 1955, he bought Felix Chevrolet, the beginning of his downtown empire that eventually included eight automobile dealerships and the landmark Petroleum Building at Flower Street and Olympic Boulevard, headquarters of his Shammas Group.
In 1958, he moved Felix from its original 12th Street and Grand Avenue location to 3330 S. Figueroa St. with the cartoon-based Felix the Cat grinning at Los Angeles car buyers and USC students alike.
Shammas gradually added other downtown dealerships -- Mercedes-Benz, Dodge, Nissan, Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi and, in 1995, Cadillac -- under the Downtown L.A. Motors banner. He amassed more than 20 acres in downtown commercial real estate and bought other parcels in Orange County, including the architectural award-winning former headquarters of Pacific Savings Bank built in Costa Mesa in 1982.
He also became involved in political and civic activities, helping launch the Mexican American Political Assn. and serving on the Democratic Party Finance Committee.
In addition to his work with city and state car dealers’ organizations, Shammas was active in the Southwest Rotary Club, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Music Center, California Hospital and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Foundation. He also served on the Los Angeles advisory council of the Small Business Assn.
Shammas was the first president of the World Lebanese Union and, in 1980, was honored as man of the year by the Lebanon-Syrian-American Society of greater Los Angeles.
He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Jeanette Hilland Shammas; two daughters, Carole Shammas, who is chairwoman of USC’s history department and married to Holter, of Los Angeles, and Diane Shammas, of Emerald Bay, Calif.; and one granddaughter.
Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Nicholas Orthodox Christian Cathedral, 2300 W. 3rd St. The family has asked that, instead of flowers, memorial donations be sent either to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105, or to the Nickolas N. Shammas Scholarship Fund for the Southwest Los Angeles Rotary Club, c/o his dealership at 3330 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90007.
