Caruso Has Vision for Business-Friendlier L.A.

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Retail center developer Rick Caruso accepted the Business Person of the Year award March 12 from the Business Journal.

Publisher Matt Toledo presented the award to Caruso at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles in front of 450 of the developer’s friends and family as well as a number of business and political leaders.

Toledo said the Business Journal selected Caruso for his leadership, vision and philanthropy. He also recognized Caruso’s wife, Tina Caruso, for supporting her husband.

Caruso owns Caruso Affiliated Holdings LLC, the company he founded nearly 20 years ago. He has since developed nine Los Angeles County malls, with some of them becoming the best-known outdoor lifestyle centers. Chief among those is the Grove.

In accepting the award, Caruso wove some humor into his thanks to Comerica Bank, which was also the lead sponsor of the event.

“I’d like to thank Comerica, who I owe a fortune to,” Caruso said. “I assume that’s why they’re here.”

Caruso’s acceptance speech highlighted his views on the economy.

He scoffed at the federal government’s stimulus package, saying “it’s a number, not a plan,” and urged his fellow businesspeople to be proactive.

“We in business can’t wait to have this resolved for us,” he said. “We must plan. We must figure out how to make money out of the wreckage of the old financial model.”

Caruso, who ruled out a run for mayor in the last election but has said he might seek the position in the future, spent the latter half of his speech talking about Los Angeles.

He said the city needs to be more “pro growth” and “pro business.” Caruso called for a phase-out of the gross receipts tax.

“It’s skimming off the top,” Caruso said. “That’s what the mob did in Las Vegas, and it has no place in Los Angeles.”

He also said business leaders need to use their influence in the civic arena, as unions do, and demand results from elected officials.

“It can be done,” he said. “Together in business we can make it better.”

Previous Hall of Fame inductees include Andrew and Peggy Cherng, owners of Panda Restaurant Group; biotech entrepreneur Alfred Mann; businessman and philanthropist Eli Broad; venture capitalist and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan; and Edward Roski Jr., chairman and chief executive of Majestic Realty Co.

The Business Journal also honored 67 other businesses and organizations throughout the Los Angeles area for their leadership. Those included Deloitte & Touche USA LLP as the No. 1 accounting firm, City National Bank as the top bank and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as the top hospital.