Caruso Reveals His Hand to Our Art Kids

By JOHN HARLOW Editor-in-Chief

Rick Caruso shared fresh details about the Palisades Village with the young winners of the recent Caruso/Palisadian-Post art competition, including how he intends to fit 42 outlets onto the three-acre site, as fashion maven Elyse Walker revealed she will be joining the development.

Walker will maintain her high-fashion stores on Antioch in The Village and in Newport Beach before opening a third store on the same street as Vintage Grocers. It will be called Towne, and unlike the Antioch store that opened 18 years ago, it will offer both men and women’s clothing.

Observers suggest it will be a fresh approach to fashion—in line with Caruso’s message to the art competition winners when they donned hard hats to visit the building site on Wednesday, Sept. 27.

He said he was only talking to known brands if they could offer something different from their familiar wares. Beverly Boulevard restaurant Madeo serves traditional Italian fare.

But its spin-off, FdeiM by Madeo, will be “light and airy,” and offer affordable family breakfasts, he told the young artists visiting from schools, including Corpus Christi, Calvary Christian and Palisades Charter Elementary.

There would also be a “great” burger place and a sandwich place. “There will be casual dining and fine dining. It will disprove the theory that the Palisades cannot support its own shopping economy. And it will be somewhere where kids can hang after school,” he said, reading his young audience accurately.

Caruso revealed that he would be handing over the shell of the new movie theater to operators Cinépolis next month—its rear wall will be landscaped to ease the view from Albright.

Caruso said that he was looking at about 42 operators in a space as big as Nordstrom in The Grove: It is only possible because even a 500-square-foot outlet will have storage space underneath.

The previous development had about 25 “doors” or outlets in the same area.

Caruso said that around 75 percent of Palisades Village leases were already signed: “I have asked my people to slow down,” he joked.

When asked by one of the artists whether Palisades Village would have fountains, he said the site was probably too small, “but I will bring it up with my planners in the next meeting. They love it when I bring them new ideas.”

There are about 200 people per day currently working on the site but that will double next spring as it cruises toward a summer opening—possibly as early as July 2018. He revealed there would be a free bike-loaning scheme and an Uber drop-off point, and there is planning underway to accommodate driverless cars.

See more pictures from the art winners’ tour in next week’s edition of the Post.