Felix Sabates

Sabates, who has been a Charlotte resident since 1963, has always had a soft spot in his heart for sports. In 1988 he became an original owner of the Charlotte Hornets basketball team and played a key role in negotiating with the NBA to grant Charlotte a franchise. He is also the only person that had ownership in the Hornets to now also have an ownership stake with Michael Jordan in the Charlotte Bobcats. He has also been an owner of the East Coast Hockey League’s Charlotte Checkers, who won the league championship in 1995. In addition, in the early 1980s he started the first indoor professional soccer team and was one of the first investors of the World Football League. Sabates first entered the world of stock car racing as an owner in 1987, when he purchased a research and development team from NASCAR team owner and popular Charlotte businessman, Rick Hendrick. SABCO Racing was founded and a new NASCAR Cup competitor entered the scene. For Sabates, it was just the beginning of a long, successful career on the NASCAR circuit. In 1988, the father of three and grandfather of six purchased a Hatteras sport fishing yacht dealership in Stuart, Fla. and within two years Sabates had turned it into the largest Hatteras dealership in the world. Sabates, along with his partner John Dane, followed that up with the purchase of the number one custom superyacht builder in the world - Trinity Yachts in 2000. He also owns IYC, one of the largest yacht management, charter, brokerage and new construction yachts companies in the world, with offices in Monaco, the Bahamas, Saint Martees and the U.S. He is also the president and CEO of FSS Holdings, Inc., a North Carolina based company with holdings in several U.S. and international companies. Sabates served on the Board of Directors for Carolinas Health Care Systems, the University of North Carolina Charlotte, the Applica Corporation (Black & Decker), Simpson Products, the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine Task force for Latinos. Additionally Sabates was appointed to two terms on the North Carolina Banking Commission. In fact, he has been appointed to commissions by three different North Carolina governors, Jim Martin (R), Mike Easley (D) and most recently by Governor Pat McCrory (R) to vice chairman of the Oversight committee of the Airport Authority of North Carolina which oversees the Charlotte airport, the sixth busiest in the world. In his further commitment to the Charlotte region, Sabates still owns and operates, with his partner Terry Taylor, a Mercedes Benz dealership that is a four-time recipient of the - the Best of the Best Award given to only the top 10 percent of dealers nationwide. He also operates the largest volume Infiniti dealership in North Carolina as well as Bentley, Hyundai, Mazda, Sprinter and Smart Car auto dealerships.