Rick Caruso is the founder and chairman of Caruso Affiliated. Having dedicated his life to Los Angeles, he has become the city's most notable real estate developer, civic leader, and philanthropist. If one were to ask what separates him from the rest, it would be his ability to listen to and understand people's needs, concerns and experiences. He values people first. The principle that has led to his phenomenal success in business - it's always about the customer.
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Set against the backdrop of the magnitude of Los Angeles' urban sprawl, Rick has dedicated himself to studying and creating comfortable welcoming places that scale to the way people naturally want to live. Despite being referred to as a mall developer, Rick has found success by investing in communities and creating properties that provide neighborhoods with connection and a sense of place.
Starting his career in real estate with a duplex in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, Rick Caruso grew to develop impactful properties throughout the region where others had failed before. Although gaining notoriety for The Grove at Farmer's Market, The Americana at Brand in Glendale, and Palisades Village in Pacific Palisades, each property he developed on the way was an evolution in his career and an education into the communities they were designed to serve.
Today, Rick has built a portfolio of residential and commercial properties and destinations that welcome millions of guests and residents every year from all over Los Angeles and beyond. Beyond creating the places and experiences that draw guests and attract the businesses that locate in his properties to cater to them, operating these properties is an enormous commitment to the safety, security and well being of the guests, tenants, and surrounding neighborhoods.
Rick Caruso's investment in Los Angeles means he's had to have an in-depth understanding of the demands of doing business in Los Angeles for companies both large and small. They are his tenants, and he is in the business of creating an environment that is conducive to their success while contributing to the larger ecosystem of the region.
Rick also started as a small business and grew into the broad reaching business for which he is known throughout Los Angeles today. Successfully building and operating a business in Los Angeles is no small feat.
The depth and breadth of his success in business and service to the community is a testament to his ability to bring together diverse groups of people, assemble the right talent to get the job done, allocate resources effectively, and navigate a challenging environment to overcome the obstacles in a way that will ultimately deliver results in something that will serve the community for years to come.
Rick Caruso's roots in Los Angeles go back almost a century when his Italian grandfather brought his family out to L.A. from a mining town in Pennsylvania, eventually settling down in Boyle Heights. Born in Los Angeles in 1959, Rick is the son of Hank and Gloria Caruso.
After growing up in L.A., Rick remained in Los Angeles for his college education. He would first attend USC to earn a business degree. Rick would follow up his undergraduate degree in business by earning a law degree from Pepperdine University in 1983.
Rick Caruso would also remain in Los Angeles to raise his family. After college, Rick married his wife Tina. They have three sons and a daughter together, all of whom grew up in L.A. and attended USC.
Rick Caruso would begin his professional life in law, working as an attorney at Finley Kumble until the firm went under in 1987. It was then he took an entrepreneurial leap to follow his passion into real estate and founded Caruso Affiliated Holdings with just himself and his assistant.
Starting from a duplex in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, he has spent the last 30 years building an iconic portfolio of retail, residential, and hospitality properties in Southern California that range from Santa Barbara to Marina del Rey. He gained particular recognition for The Grove at Farmers Market and The Americana at Brand.
Key to his success, he places particular importance on understanding and listening to the people and businesses in the communities he invests in. His goal is to create places that hold the fabric of the community together indefinitely into the future. On properties where developers that came before have failed, Rick's approach has led him to succeed by meeting the needs of the community, elevating the surrounding neighborhoods, and understanding how to work with local government.
Throughout his career, Rick Caruso has been continuously engaged in serving the community. He served as commissioner on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and he served as president of the Los Angeles Police Commission. In these roles, he learned at a young age how government works, and he learned about the challenges of the many diverse neighborhoods throughout the City of Los Angeles.
No doubt Rick Caruso's experiences throughout his life have shaped his perspective on helping others and his awareness of the impact our institutions have on our lives. He has dedicated time to help fight poverty. To combat inequity in our educational system, his success has given him the means to make large contributions to help provide educations to those from underserved communities. In addition to having more opportunity in their own lives, Rick hopes the people he helps can have an even greater impact by elevating the communities around them as they move forward on their path.
Rick Caruso’s roots in Los Angeles go back to the 1920’s when his grandfather, August, moved to Los Angeles from Pennsylvania. August Caruso emigrated from Italy and established himself in America where he worked in the coal mines in a mining town south of Pittsburg.
After August’s son Henry (Hank) Caruso was born, he moved his family to Los Angeles. August became a gardener and eventually settled down in Boyle Heights. Boyle Heights was an area adjacent to downtown Los Angeles that drew different ethnic communities. This is where his son Henry would grow up.
Hank, as Henry was referred to, would begin to put himself through college at USC, but he enlisted in the navy where he would serve the country as a pilot during WWII.
After his service in the war, Hank Caruso returned to Los Angeles and embarked on a career as an entrepreneur in the automotive industry, an industry that was on the verge of a new era.
Hank found success in the car business becoming the largest car dealer in the region. More success ensued when he founded Dollar Rent-A-Car, a rental car company that would rival the leaders in the industry.
Hank Caruso would marry his wife Gloria and raise their family in Los Angeles. Together, they had three children: Christina, Rick, and Marc. In the Italian tradition, they would keep the family together over their Sunday family dinner. They would also remain rooted in their Catholic faith.
Rick Caruso would marry his wife Tina in the 1980’s and raise their family in Los Angeles. They would have four children together who would all attend USC. In the tradition of the family Rick grew up in, they would also come together over Sunday family dinner and remain active in the Catholic faith.
After his upbringing in Los Angeles, Rick Caruso followed in his father’s footsteps and attended USC. He studied business and built connections and friendships that would last a lifetime.
At the advice of his father, Rick continued his academic career and studied law. He pursued a law degree at Pepperdine University. His education in law and the doors that would open up as a result would be invaluable to him in his career in business and real estate.
After his education, Rick would remain connected and involved with both Pepperdine and USC. Both are important institutions that were formative in his education, experiences, and relationships that have remained important to him throughout his life.
After graduating from Pepperdine, Rick Caruso clerked at a real estate litigation firm in Century City which proved to be an extensive learning experience. The most important lesson he learned – never be afraid to start at the bottom.
Rick subsequently moved on to work as a lawyer at Finley Kumble Wagner. He admittedly was not passionate about his work. He may have liked to have moved on sooner. When Finley Kumble was dissolved in 1987, he got his chance to dedicate himself to the work he is known for today.
When Finley Kumble went under, Rick found himself at the bottom once again. He always had a passion for real estate. While he was still a lawyer, Rick’s father, Hank, had given him an opportunity to get involved in real estate by buying property Hank's company needed, then leasing the property back to them. When Rick found himself out of a job, his recently wedded wife encouraged him to pursue his passion in real estate.
With the bit of cash flow that he had from his sideline leasing real estate to his father’s company, he acquired his first property which was a duplex in Westwood. As a small fledgling business, Rick was hands on.
Rick Caruso brought up the property, painted and even gardened himself in the spirit of his grandfather who became a gardener when he restarted his life in Los Angeles. Rick even did the sales as his own leasing agent on the weekends. Doing the work himself, he learned how the details create value in the property for his tenants.
After his start with a small duplex in Westwood, he would soon acquire the property at 333 S La Cienega in Los Angeles under the company he founded, Caruso Affiliated Holdings.
Located just south of the Beverly Center at a highly trafficked and visible intersection, Rick would begin his evolution as a developer. He embarked on building a shopping center at the location that would be opened in 1992 and tenanted by Loehmanns.
After 333 S La Cienega, he acquired a property in Encino, an area of northern Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. There he would build the Encino Marketplace, a 95,000 square foot retail development that would open in 1994.
Rick Caruso continued developing properties down the 101 corridor, opening The Village at Moorpark in Thousand Oaks and The Promenade In Westlake. These projects were followed by The Commons at Calabasas which opened in 1998.
Each project was a step in the evolution for him and his company. Each property built on the lessons from the property built before it. Today, Rick Caruso has broadened his company’s holdings into a distinctive portfolio of retail, entertainment, residential and hospitality properties that have become an integral part of the region from Santa Barbara down to Marina Del Rey.
The result of his approach is a better experience for his properties’ guests, and superior business performance for his tenants. The company cites a 75% higher sales per square foot than the industry average and 3 X higher than industry average tenant sales growth.
As a privately held company, Caruso Affiliated Holdings is proud to have a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) that has approached 20% since its founding. Caruso’s two iconic properties, The Grove in Los Angeles, and The Americana at Brand in Glendale, rank among the top 15 producing shopping centers world wide.
Located next to the Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles, the iconic property has become an integral part of the fabric of Los Angeles, drawing people from every corner of the region to shop, dine, socialize, or go for a stroll. However, the vision of what the property could be wasn’t realized until Rick and his team took on the endeavor.
The site where The Grove is located today was originally slated for an indoor mall, however the project fell through. Given the subsequent decline of indoor malls throughout the country, it's difficult to say how the project would have contributed to the surrounding community.
Given the site's distance from major freeways in an area that had undergone some decline, it was important to have a concept that leveraged the iconic and historical Farmer's Market and enhanced the surrounding neighborhoods and ecosystem.
Word got to Rick that the property would be available while he was still working on The Commons In Calabasas. It would be a stretch for him, but he jumped on the opportunity. Competing against other proposals, Rick pitched his vision to the family that owned the property and they liked it.
His vision would not just become part of the local ecosystem, but also a destination location that would draw from the greater Los Angeles area. The result is The Grove is the second most productive shopping center in the United States with 90% of guests making a purchase.
Among Rick Caruso's properties is the Masonic Temple in Glendale located adjacent to The Americana At Brand. Built in 1929, the building was a historic landmark that remained vacant for decades.
The Masonic Temple building was on CBRE’s radar when it came time for the company to find new office space for its San Fernando Valley office. CBRE had just gained notoriety for implementing its “Workplace 360” initiative in its Downtown Los Angeles headquarters. It would be implementing this new approach in its future offices.
Deal in hand between Rick Caruso and CBRE, Caruso acquired the property. He re-purposed the building to serve as an example of cutting edge office space design that centered on the approach to wellness in the workplace that CBRE had innovated.
In addition to CBRE’s “Workplace 360” concept, Rick added his touch of hospitality to the office concept that he incorporates into his other developments. For example, CBRE’s professionals benefit from Caruso’s concierge service that frees them from their distractions so they can focus on their business.
In the Pacific Palisades, Rick Caruso has revitalized the downtown area. The Pacific Palisades had lost a sense of place despite being beautifully located on California's Pacific Coast between Santa Monica and Malibu.
Rick’s investment in this area represents another step in the evolution of his company. Consistent with his previous projects such as The Americana or The Grove, Palisades Village is another example of Rick creating another center of gravity for an area that had begun to lose its center over time.
The distinction of Palisades Village is that it was an existing downtown street around which Rick would create a sense of place. With the support of the city and local community in Pacific Palisades, they created an area that scaled to the surrounding neighborhoods.
The Miramar Beach Resort is Rick Caruso’s first official adventure into hospitality. Hospitality has always been the common thread that has transcended all of Rick’s work. The Miramar Beach Resort makes it official, at least under the conventions of the traditional real estate world.
The property has a legacy that goes back over a century. Located in Montecito on the ocean, just south of Santa Barbara, it is uniquely nested on the beach in a beautiful area that provides an escape from the city, but is within driving distance of Los Angeles.
Many eyed the property. It was eventually sold in the 1990’s with the hopes of developing a large resort. The project never got off the ground and the property was resold again to no avail. After decades of neglect and an inability to overcome the challenges of developing the property, Rick was able to acquire the property.
Through listening to the community, overcoming politics, and riding the ups and downs of the market, Rick was finally able to create the world-class resort that had always been missing on the California coast.
As Rick Caruso’s career progressed in law, and then in real estate, he was equally active in his civic duties to the city of Los Angeles. At 25 years old, Mayor Tom Bradley selected Rick to serve as commissioner on the Los Angeles Department of Water And Power.
Rick’s experience as a young commissioner at the DWP was a crucial experience that broadened his perspective on the world. He gained experience and an understanding of the workings of government and civil affairs at a young age. It would also make him aware of the areas of the city that need help.
Rick Caruso’s next role in his civic service to the city was as president of the Los Angeles Police Commission. Mayor James Hahn asked him to serve on the commission during a difficult and controversial time at the Los Angeles Police Department.
As president of the commission, Rick approached the role in the same way he approached business – be professional but a little disruptive. In this role, it meant making politically difficult decisions. In politics as in business, he walked his talk - if you want to make a difference, you should never get comfortable. You need to risk losing your job.
Today, the role of mayor of Los Angeles has been filled by Mayor Eric Garcetti who has had to simultaneously confront the most difficult crises the city has ever had to face including homelessness, Covid-19, and racial inequality. However there was a time after Rick Caruso’s service on the Police Commission, when there were expectations that he could run for mayor of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is an inseparable part of his identity and that of his family’s identity, past and present. Throughout his life, his professional career, civic service, and philanthropic contributions have been dedicated to the city of Los Angeles. He may not have pursued the office of mayor, but he continues to use his voice and find roles in which he can contribute to the community as he expresses in his open letter to Angelinos.
