Caruso reopens Palisades Village 19 months after fire Play

Construction crews were busy at Rick Caruso's shopping center in the Pacific Palisades on Sunday. But this was not part of the rebuilding effort in the fire-cleared neighborhoods.

Rather, they were tearing down an elaborate stage that had been built in a fire-cleared vacant lot across the street from Palisades Village. It was part of the elaborately staged Saturday grand opening — the fanciest mall ribbon cutting since Rick Caruso opened the Grove some 20 years ago.

"I don't know about you, but I have been waiting 19 months to say, 'Welcome to Palisades Village,'" Caruso said.

As five skywriting airplanes flew in formation above, Caruso cut the ribbon to mark the reopening of the Palisades Village shopping center. The stores and restaurants in the heart of Pacific Palisades have been closed since the January 2025 Palisades Fire.

During the event, Caruso buried the hatchet with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and city of Los Angeles bureaucrats.

"To the city, although our start was a little bumpy, they leaned in side-by-side," Caruso said. "The councilwoman's office, the mayor's office, everybody realized that by working together we were going to get this done. So my gratitude is to them."

The shopping center looks just like it did before the fire, although the tenant mix is quite different.

People who drive PCH to and from Malibu may be forgiven for not knowing where this mall is. It's tucked away off Sunset Boulevard, in the heart of Pacific Palisades — a place that frankly is ignored by most motorists on PCH.

Most people driving between Malibu and Santa Monica have no idea that Palisades Village is there.

Take one tourist from Ventura. Jennifer told us she has been to Malibu and Santa Monica dozens of times but never to Pacific Palisades.

"We're very familiar with Santa Monica and driving down PCH, but we've never been to the Pacific Palisades before," she said. "And for us to hear that this shopping center is no different, that's great, because we've never seen it before. But it's so beautiful and it's so beautifully designed. It makes you want to be here, it makes you want to shop."

The area around the shopping center is still bombed out. The old commercial store across Sunset, with landmark concrete arches, looks like a bomb hit it. The Ralphs and the Gelson's supermarket sites are still scraped flat.

Caruso was not happy about that. He told the L.A. Daily News that Ralphs is part of a multi-billion-dollar company that should be rebuilding now. Same thing for Gelson's.

"Why are the small independent businesses reopening and these major multi-billion-dollar businesses aren't?" Caruso said.

That was offstage. Onstage, Caruso was soaking up the spotlight. And he said the job of rebuilding Pacific Palisades has only started.

"Now listen, I'm not gonna sit and lie here. We're in the middle of the recovery. And this is one chapter," Caruso said. "It's a megastep, no doubt, but there are many more megasteps to come. And why we celebrate today, and rightfully so, not the rebuilding of the village, but the progress this community has made in bringing itself back."

But across the street, and for blocks and blocks in every direction, it is one giant construction zone. More than a quarter of the 6,000 destroyed homes are under construction.

But the two mobile home parks on PCH were home to 600 families. They are vacant lots, their futures very much up in the air.

One resident of the Palisades Bowl who lost her home 18 months ago took in the scene at the grand opening of the shopping center. Kate told us she lived in Palisades Bowl, just a mile away. And she hardly ever shopped at Palisades Village.

"I'm not really sentimental about all this. I know a lot of people are. I didn't really feel part of this community," Kate said. "But I think because I lived down at the bowl, I really did not feel a part of this community. Maybe there is hope up here, but it's pretty hopeless down at the Bowl."

A woman named Kate, attending the grand opening at Palisades Village, but she will never be able to move back to her home at the Palisades Bowl.