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The Palisades Village Mall almost burned to the ground. In January, the Palisades Fire ravaged the surrounding neighborhood, destroying over 6,000 structures in the affluent seaside community. The ritzy mall, however, was protected by private firefighters.
Rick Caruso — the eponymous founder of Caruso, the real estate group which owns Palisades Village — said in an interview with ABC7 the mall could reopen in early 2026.
As of early April, the surrounding neighborhood has not been cleaned, nor have the streets been reopened, Caruso said. As a result, his company has had to wait to perform needed restoration work.
During January’s fires, the mall was at the center of a controversy over the use of private firefighters.A private team from Arizona hired by Caruso kept the flames away from the mall complex When the fire hydrants ran dry, private water trucks were brought in.
As a result, the mall was left relatively unscathed. Buildings on the Caruso property suffered only smoke damage. Though the firefighters attempted to protect surrounding houses, the rest of the neighborhood was razed.
Caruso and other proponents claim that they add extra resources to the battle, and protect valuable property. The water trucked in by the developer’s team allowed the mall to be protected even after the city’s water system was exhausted.
“We protected our property and we also freed up L.A. fire resources to go protect other properties, so we were very much independent and we were also loaning our equipment to the L.A. Fire Department, which was short equipment,” Caruso told ABC7.
However, the practice has been criticized for draining public resources and exacerbating inequalities in disaster response.
In March, State Assembly member Isaac Bryan introduced Assembly Bill 1075, which would ban private firefighters from using public hydrants. Caruso has maintained that his firefighters did not use city water.
“AB 1075 makes it clear that private ‘firefighters’ can’t hook up to public water in a natural disaster and divert limited resources away from public firefighters,” Bryan said on X.
Though Palisades Village is moving ahead with its plans to reopen, it will do so in the midst of a destroyed area. Almost all of the surrounding homes have been completely destroyed. The mall’s resuscitation may be a crucial anchor for other businesses and homeowners to return.
