Fiat-Chrsyler dealership comes to downtown

It'll be on the site of a Chrysler dealership that was abandoned six years ago, reports the Downtown News. The Chrysler Group is expected to be the owner/operator (unusual in the dealership business), with the brand lineup made up of Chrysler, Jeep, Ram Truck, Dodge and Fiat. This would be the first North American dealership for Fiat, which acquired a 20 percent stake in Chrysler last year.

"They're going to make this their flagship store for the West Coast and the factory is going to own the store," said Darryl Holter, chief administrative officer of the Shammas Group, which owns seven auto dealerships on the Figueroa Corridor, including the Porsche outlet across from the future Chrysler shop. Holter, who also chairs the Figueroa Corridor Business Improvement District, has spearheaded the development of the burgeoning auto center in the area loosely bounded by the Santa Monica (10) Freeway and USC. Adding five new brands is a shot in the arm for that vision, he said. "It is a big deal because for one thing it conforms to the original plans to take some of the lessons we've seen from auto malls in suburban areas and put that into a densely populated urban environment, and try to learn from some of that but adapt it in our own way," Holter said.