Victory and Another Delay for Caruso
The Arcadia City Council unanimously approved Caruso Affiliated’s long-delayed Shops at Santa Anita project on April 17, but Arcadia residents say a bruising fight might be brewing for the project.
Arcadia First!, a community group backed by a rival shopping-center developer Westfield Group, is expected to petition for a ballot referendum on the Shops at Santa Anita, said Jeff Bowen, a 57-year Arcadia resident, a former president of the town’s Highland Homeowners’ Association and a Caruso supporter.
The group has until June 1 to collect 3,000 signatures to qualify for a ballot referendum. If they succeed in collecting the signatures, the matter could be placed on a municipal ballot in the fall.
Arcadia First! has fought against the Caruso project since it was announced in 2004. The 825,000-square-foot Shops At Santa Anita will be located adjacent to Westfield Santa Anita shopping center, which is 16 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Westfield Group representatives did not reply to calls.
Nothing but a chain-link fence separates the properties of the Westfield mall and the Caruso project, said Bill Kelly, Arcadia’s city manager. The language of the ordinance approving the Caruso development also required the Shops at Santa Anita to offer retail on par with the retail that will be at Caruso’s Americana at Brand shopping center in Glendale, Calif., which will open for business in 2008.
The Americana’s anticipated retailers are Swedish fast-fashion emporium H&M, Juicy Couture, BCBG Max Azria and Urban Outfitters. Westfield Santa Anita offers boutiques such as Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and Pacific Sunwear.
Caruso has been anticipating a fight, too. On April 16, he called on Westfield to avoid a costly political and legal struggle. Instead, he suggested that his company and Westfield take the money that they would spend funding political battles, estimated at $5 million each, and instead form a $10 million community fund for Arcadia. Westfield has not replied to the challenge.
Arcadia residents have been delighted with the largesse that Caruso has offered them through his shopping center. He has offered to build a 400-seat community theater on the shopping center’s property. Residents will be able to hold meetings and produce events there rent free.
Caruso also offered the Arcadia Unified School District 22,000 square feet of office space on the property, also free. The school district will pay for the build out of the office space, but the extra space will in turn make more classroom space available for the district’s crowded high school.
Caruso’s offers of a rent-free community, theater and school-district office space are generous and also happen to be good business for major developments, said Larry Kosmont, president of Encino, Calif.–based economic development and real estate consulting firm Kosmont Companies.
“You can expect big community contributions on big projects,” Kosmont said. “It is strategic and intelligent to invest in arts and education. The better the community, the better profile shopper he has, and the better his shopping center will do.”
In other Caruso news, a 2,000-square-foot Michael Kors lifestyle store opened at The Grove in Los Angeles on April 13. The elegant boutique, equipped with white backgrounds and 34-foot-high vaulted ceilings, carries 70 percent accessories and 30 percent apparel. The New York–based Michael Kors company also runs a flagship store a few miles away from The Grove at 360 N. Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills. —Andrew Asch
