Services were held today for Nathan Shapell, a homebuilder who helped develop Porter Ranch. Shapell died in his sleep. He was 85. Shapell founded Shapell Industries and remained chairman and CEO of the company until his death. Shapell communities included the MGM ranch redevelopment in Thousand Oaks and Kite Hill in Laguna Niguel. But locally he is perhaps best known for the development of Porter Ranch, a community of 3,300 homes and a large retail center that drew the wrath of local residents when it was built. The Porter Ranch commercial center had won the approval of the community because many residents thought it would be anchored by a Nordstrom. Instead, the center was tenanted with Wal-Mart and Toys ‘R’ Us among other big box retailers. Born in Poland, Shapell was a holocaust survivor imprisoned in the Buchenwald and Auschwitz Concentration Camps. After the war he spent a number of years helping other survivors to rebuild their lives in Europe and emigrate to the United States. He himself came to the U.S. in 1952 with his wife Lilly and daughter Vera. In 2001 Shapell joined Eli Wiesel and Maya Angelou among others when he was named by President Bill Clinton as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Vera and Paul Guerin; three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and his brother David Shapell. In lieu of flowers, the Guerin family requests that donations be made to either Friends of the Israel Defense Forces or to Women’s Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Pulmonary Diseases Program.