The Grove in New York? Caruso Debuts Manhattan Office
One of California’s best-known shopping-center developers, Rick Caruso, is taking his act to New York City.
On May 8, the Los Angeles–based Caruso Affiliated, developer of Los Angeles’ The Grove, announced that it would open a business office at the exclusive Manhattan address of 45 Rockefeller Center, said Todd M. Russell, Caruso’s senior vice president of leasing and marketing. Russell will lead this office. It is scheduled to open in the second week of July.
One of the office’s primary missions is to build closer relations with financial institutions, fashion houses and national retailers that have headquarters in New York. The office will also serve as a listening post for the next big thing. “It will allow us to monitor trends, consumer attitudes and tastes,” Russell said.
Russell declined to talk about whether the office would serve as a business-development center. But some New Yorkers thought that Caruso’s California-style open-air shopping centers could translate to other areas of the country.
“It’s a smart move, but it would be hard to duplicate,” said Vince Gonzales, a native New Yorker and chief operating officer at the Manhattan-based offices of Meltin’ Pot, an Italian denim brand.
The often-inclement East Coast weather aside, Gonzales said he thinks tourists and New Yorkers would flock to a California-style shopping experience. “Soho already looks like a shopping mall,” he said of the national retailers such as Banana Republic dominating the venerable neighborhood.
The announcement of Caruso’s New York office comes at a time when the company also is becoming further involved in the businesses of hotel and residential development.
The developer is scheduled to debut The Miramar Hotel and Bungalows near Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2010. Russell has described the project as a five-star, family-oriented hotel.
Another Caruso project, The Americana at Brand, will debut in Glendale, Calif., in 2008 and will offer 238 luxury apartments and 100 condominiums, as well as retail stores, in the park-like 15.5 acre development.
The Village at Playa Vista, an 11-acre development neighboring Los Angeles’ Marina Del Rey section, will feature 175 apartments along with 195,000 square feet of retail. It will debut 2009.
Retail remains a primary focus at Caruso properties, however. According to a Caruso Affiliated spokeswoman, sales per square foot at Caruso’s retail properties are 40 percent higher than industry averages. According to the New York–based International Council of Shopping Centers, the average national sales per square foot is $403 in 2006.—Andrew Asch
