Rick Caruso’s sticking with his ambitious timeline for reopening his upscale Palisades Village retail center next year, backed by new tailwinds.
The developer and retailer Elyse Walker confirmed Wednesday that Walker plans to reopen her flagship Pacific Palisades store, which was burned during January’s Palisades Fire, across the street in Palisades Village.
“This moment is filled with joy and anticipation, but it also comes with a deep sense of reflection,” Walker said in a social media post. “Just five months ago, our beloved Palisades community faced unimaginable loss – and with it, we lost our flagship store, our second home, and the heart of our brand.”
Walker opened that store 25 years ago and, over the course of that time, expanded the footprint of that store and also her overall business.
She now has stores in Southampton, Newport Beach, Calabasas, St. Helena, Tribeca and the Upper East Side. Her basics concept, Towne by Elyse Walker, also has a door in Newport Beach and at one time had a location within Palisades Village.
“Relocating across the street to Palisades Village is more than a move – it’s a symbol of resilience, hope and commitment,” Walker said.
Palisades Village Reopening
Caruso hasn’t been shy in serving up pointed criticism of the city’s handling of the wildfires as it burned and now as the Palisades rebuilds.
He’s been quick to call out bureaucracy at the city level, pushing for more public-private partnerships in a bid to accelerate the recovery efforts.
Last month, he told Palisades residents during the community’s town council meeting, “We’ve got to get a culture in the city changed.”
In fact, his visibility has led some to question if he’s making another go at politics, whether at the city or state level. The subject once again appeared during the April community meeting.
“I’m not going to give any announcement until the end of summer because I don’t know yet,” Caruso said. “Do I love public service? Yes, I obviously wanted to be mayor [of Los Angeles] once and I love helping the city. I love this city, simple as that and I love the state, and I think we should be the best city in the best state. So I’m looking at a lot of different options, but right now my focus is Steadfast and that’s what I’m going to focus on.”
Steadfast LA is the public-private partnership led by Caruso post-fires focused on rebuilding efforts across the communities impacted by the Palisades and Eaton fires.
He also reiterated at that meeting, his timeline for getting Palisades Village back open after the first of the year. While the center was not entirely destroyed, it has been undergoing cleanup to remove debris. Some areas were burned and those will be rebuilt, along with store interiors that suffered extensive smoke damage, according to Caruso.
“I can’t share details yet. We’ll be making some announcements,” Caruso said of Palisades Village’s reopening. “It will be better than ever in terms of how it’s operating. The programming, the tenants we’re opening up with, some new tenants that are going to be great surprises and great for the community.”
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