Real estate developer. University of Southern California board member. Civic leader. These are just a few titles that billionaire Rick Caruso currently holds.
Lewis Horne, president of advisory services for greater Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire, has known Caruso since attending USC, where they were both involved with Greek life.
Even then, Horne said people looked up to Caruso as a leader.
“He had a sense of purpose, and he could be really clear…and he inspired people around him,” Horne said.
Over the years, Caruso went on to develop iconic, high-end retail properties around the county including The Grove, Palisades Village, The Commons at Calabasas and The Americana at Brand. He has developed other product types as well, including Miramar Resort in Montecito.
Andy Cohen, global co-chair of architecture firm Gensler, has worked with Caruso on many projects over the years and called him a “visionary.”
“Rick is such a smart leader, he really cares about community and cares about people and he is really a hands-on leader,” Cohen said. “…He’s been a real inspiration.”
He added that Caruso takes a “big picture approach” to his projects and works to make projects that fit into the community.
Horne called Caruso’s properties “some of the most valuable real estate in the world,” adding that “he’s executing on these incredible properties, not emulating anybody.”
“His legacy will be somebody that was able to really do it all, and do it for the right reasons…he has a sense of urgency and relentless follow through,” Horne said.
“He has been able to not only execute on a vision (with development) but along the way has been able to help… and has had a focus on philanthropy,” Horne added.
Over the years Caruso has served as the police commissioner, a member of the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners and worked with a number of philanthropic causes as well.
“He’s always been philanthropic, he’s always been civic minded and he’s always been incredibly busy,” Horne added.
Most recently, though, Caruso has turned his site toward rebuilding Los Angeles in the wake of the devastating wildfires that affected the region earlier this year.
Starting Steadfast LA
In February, Caruso launched Steadfast LA with the goal of using private-sector leaders, including Horne and Cohen, to expedite the rebuilding process. Caruso is funding the nonprofit himself with donations going back into the community.
“We all know the extent of the devastation of these fires…the scope, the size and the impact of that devastation, I don’t believe this is something that the city alone or the county alone or the state alone can really deal with successfully,” Caruso said, adding that Steadfast LA would help “find solutions to very complex problems.”
He added that government agencies can’t always act with the same sense of urgency that the private sector can, and Steadfast LA was “trying to push the city and the county to make good decisions to make them quickly.”
“More needs to be done and it needs to be done quicker. We’re 90 days into this now. I’m not very impressed,” Caruso said roughly three months after the fires took place. “… we’ve got to get people in their homes, we’ve got to get small business reopened, we’ve got to get the area clean. And I think it should be happening quicker.”
“Having a visionary and leader like Rick at the head of Steadfast can make a huge difference,” Cohen said.
He added that the group would use the “power of the private sector to rebuild” and that it was “really unique.”
“The private sector can help get things done faster…and partner with the city or the county to get smart solutions,” he said.
Gensler, he added, was working on the design and rebuild of the Palisades Park and Recreation Center.
He said the firm and Steadfast LA was also looking to learn lessons from the fires, such as how to use materials that would decrease the risk of fires spreading from house to house in the future.
“We are looking to rebuild smarter and better,” he said.
Two of Caruso’s children lost homes in the fires, Horne said.
“His first reaction was to be part of the rebuilding,” Horne said. “He wants to be part of helping the community get back on its feet.”
Initial projects for Steadfast LA
Caruso said one of the group’s first initiatives was “convincing the county and the city to underground power lines.”
Steadfast LA is also working with an AI model to check building plans with the goal of minimizing time and costs to homeowners. L.A. has been accused of having an onerous approval process, making building difficult and slow.
“Whether you are a developer trying to pull a permit or a resident trying to build a home…getting permits in the city of Los Angeles is a miserable process that takes way too long and this why we designed this AI model for plan check…you need to innovate and you need to bring in technology,” Caruso said.
He added that he hoped the government took on an attitude of seeing residents as customers and worked to have “great customer service.”
“Government agencies never go out of business and so they’re not customer centric,” he said.
Steadfast LA is also working with Samara manufactured homes and will donate units to low- to moderate-income individuals to get them back into the community.
“I’m very proud of the work that everybody is doing,” Caruso said of Steadfast LA.
Caruso’s Palisades Village, a community shopping center in the area with retail and restaurants, was left standing in the wake of the fires, despite much of the surrounding area burning.
Caruso hired private firefighters to keep the center safe and said there were some lessons to be learned from the approach.
“Be prepared. We all had the same warnings. In fact, the city probably had earlier warnings than the rest of us had in the public. We were prepared. We stationed our firefighters, we stationed our water trucks a couple of days before and we built the project with non-combustible materials and we were able to help save businesses and building around us,” Caruso said.
Caruso said he ended up lending fire equipment to the fire department adding that they “should have been prepared.”
Doing more to have water ready (during the fires many hydrants were empty or were unable to provide adequate amounts of water for firefighters) and managing shrubbery better are among the things Caruso said the city could have done differently.
“It’s a real sin on the part of city leadership that they were not prepared…it’s negligence,” Caruso said.
The center is expected to reopen after the first of the year.
Iconic retail properties
Caruso started off as a lawyer after graduating from Pepperdine University’s School of Law.
From there, he started on “smaller shopping centers until he moved up and built The Grove,” CBRE’s Horne said, adding that Caruso had “incredible taste.”
“Ever since I’ve known him, he’s had a love for real estate,” Horne said.
The Grove was a defining project, he said.
“There had never been anything like it built before,” Horne said. “He knew what he wanted and what he thought people in the community would want.”
Cohen echoed the idea, adding that Caruso’s projects become “the heartbeat of the community…all of his projects really add incredible value to the city and community.”
Horne added that Caruso really worked with the community and “created something that was looked at as the flagship outdoor retail lifestyle center…he may have even coined that phrase.”
“It changed the center of town,” he said.
Years after, Horne said Caruso told him the thing he would do differently if he developed the center again was building a bigger park. At his next project, The Americana, he built a bigger park.
“Everything that we build, whether it’s the resort we have or retail we have, it’s all about hospitality,” Caruso said, calling it the “highest form of enriching somebody’s life.”
Looking ahead
Going forward, Caruso is looking to expand outside of Los Angeles, bring its hospitality offerings to other cities.
Caruso said that he is hoping to create other resorts like the Rosewood Miramar, as well as do more workforce housing and retail projects.
Florida, he said, is among the areas where he is interested in developing going forward.
“Rick is synonymous in the United States for visionary and retail experiences and entertainment,” Cohen said.
“That’s what he does so well. He melds the design and experience so well with the community he is working in, and he can do that anywhere,” he added.
Right now, though, Caruso said most of his time is being dedicated to Steadfast LA.
“Rick sets his priorities straight and focuses on those priorities. Right now his priorities are making sure that there’s a plan and accelerated permitting and…that the rebuild is going to be better than what is there before,” Horne said.
And as for a potential political run? Caruso, who ran against Mayor Karen Bass in 2022, has yet to say if he plans to run again.
“My focus right now is Steadfast and getting through the summer, really getting the momentum of people back into their communities,” he said adding that come summer, he will think more about it.
