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Pacific Palisades is getting its Village back.
More than a year and a half after the devastating Palisades fire tore through the community, Palisades Village will officially open its doors Saturday for a massive grand reopening, bringing restaurants, shops, entertainment and a familiar gathering place back to a neighborhood still rebuilding.
The Jan. 7, 2025 fire scorched more than 23,000 acres, destroyed 6,845 structures and damaged another 975. Twelve people were killed and four others injured, including a firefighter.
Now, the Village is emerging from the devastation as a powerful sign of renewal.
The California Post got a sneak peek inside the restored Village ahead of the celebration, where crews were scrambling to put the finishing touches on a $100 million rebuilding effort developer Rick Caruso launched almost immediately after the fire.
The massive 19-month overhaul included rebuilding restaurant kitchens and replacing drywall, appliances and air-conditioning ducts in apartments across the property ahead of its Aug. 15 reopening.
“We made a critical decision … right after the fires,” Caruso told The Post. “We’re going to bring back the Village as quickly as possible and better and stronger.”
The goal, he said, went far beyond reopening stores.
“I really believe that hope alone can be an empty promise unless it’s attached to something tangible,” Caruso said.
The luxury retail and residential property will welcome back longtime tenants including Erewhon, Blue Ribbon Sushi, Buck Mason and Anine Bing, along with local businesses rebuilding after losing their storefronts in the fire, including K Bakery, Loomey’s Toys and LUDUS martial arts studio.
About one-third of the Village’s tenants are new.
Newcomers include Nancy Silverton’s Italian steakhouse Spacca Tutto, The h.wood Group’s Alphabet Bar & Grill, beauty retailer Violet Grey, L.A.-based designer Xirena and apparel brand LESET, which is opening its first West Coast store.
The dining scene is also roaring back.
Angelini Osteria will return with its Italian fare, while Porta Via will reopen alongside Alphabet Bar & Grill, a new restaurant from James Beard Award-winning chef Tim Hollingsworth in partnership with The h.wood Group.
Caruso said his company stripped interior spaces down to the wood studs, tested and treated the wood and rebuilt only after determining the spaces were clean and free of toxins.
The Village is 99% leased, Caruso said, and roughly 70% of its tenants are expected to be open Saturday. That stands in sharp contrast to the surrounding neighborhood, where the residential recovery is still grinding forward.
Only 1,000 rebuilding permits have been issued since the fire, according to Pali Builds, including 99 in June. Just 17 new homes have received certificates of occupancy, meaning they were cleared for residents to move in.
The permitting process also remains lengthy, averaging about 141 days in June, up from 106 days in March. Insurance battles, financing and infrastructure concerns have slowed families trying to return.
But bringing the Village back has been no easy feat either.
While the property escaped the worst of the flames, smoke poured into the complex, forcing crews to essentially gut and rebuild the interiors from scratch.
“There’s no playbook for this,” Caruso said. “We’ve never been through a whole community burning down.”
Caruso said the Village was designed with fire-resistant, noncombustible materials because it sits in a high-risk fire zone. His company also had an emergency response plan that included deploying private firefighters when wildfire threatened a property. “When it’s predictable, it’s preventable,” he said.
The result will finally be unveiled Saturday.
The celebration kicks off with a 10:30 a.m. ribbon cutting, followed by the opening of stores and restaurants at 11 a.m.
Pop-ups, tastings, live entertainment and family activities will run throughout the day before an 8 p.m. finale.
English (US)