COVER STORY, MAY 2008

PREMIUM BRAND
Caruso Affiliated's Americana at Brand will open its doors and open minds this month.
Nick Margiasso

Brand Boulevard runs through the heart of The Americana at Brand in Glendale, California.

It has been said that less is more. For Los Angeles-based retail developer Caruso Affiliated, that might be the company motto. That is, if it wasn’t for the all the more work it put in after it selects just the right project. Because the company, which was founded by Rick J. Caruso in 1992, has put together a portfolio of properties that all meet a high standard of excellence in all areas — especially when it comes to a shopper’s experience.

“What we have learned over the years with our projects as they’ve gotten better is that we have a company rule that every project should be a certain way,” Caruso, also CEO of the company that bears his name, says. “When we do these projects they are intense in terms of the amount of detail that go into them. It’s not a production where you can build a lot of these at one time.”

The company’s newest project, The Americana at Brand, located at Central Avenue and Brand Boulevard in downtown Glendale, California, is the textbook example of the company’s bread-and-butter project.

That doesn’t mean Caruso is selling itself short, just that a lot of work must go into each property. If the number of developments rises then, quite simply, so does the hard work.

A Cheesecake Factory restaurant sits under a portion of the 338 luxury residences at The Americana at Brand, which opens this month.

“We have over $1 billion in projects going on, which is a significant pipeline, but we’re very careful to make sure that we have the time focus on all the detail from artwork to retailers to the design and paint colors,” Caruso says. “Everything is labored over to make sure all the right decisions are made so that the day we’re open it fits in with the community and looks like its already been there for a long time. It takes thousands of man-hours to do that, but at the end of the day we build a much more valuable project. It gives people a sense of place in the end.”

The initial reaction, and most definitely the long term one as well, is that all of the hard work at The Americana at Brand has paid off and then some. The 900,000-square-foot project, which is built on 15.5 acres, broke ground in June 2006 and is scheduled for completion this month.

“I know I’m a bit biased, but it is a pretty spectacular project,” Caruso states proudly. “The rule for The Americana at Brand specifically was that is has to be better than The Grove (the company’s lauded Los Angeles project), which a lot of people thought was impossible to do because it has been so successful. But we’re really building a great community out here, we think.”

The community feel of The Americana at Brand is derivative of the mix Caruso Affiliated has injected into the property. The site includes 475,000 square feet of retail and restaurants as well as an 18-screen Pacific Theatres movie house, 338 luxury residences that offer services akin to a five-star hotel (238 apartments and 100 condos), a 2-acre park, open-air plazas, promenades and rich landscaping.

“It’s the equivalent of 4 city blocks in the heart of Glendale, California,” Caruso explains. “It has all the features we typically put in our projects besides the retail and residential component — the fountains, the walkways and the beautiful architecture and landscaping.”

Those classy and attractive trademarks of the Caruso product, which abound in this $369 million project, are essential to the shopper’s experience in the realm of the company’s patented development.

The $369 million mixed-use project incorporates all of the classy, detailed trademarks of a Caruso property.

“We want our guests to come on the property, relax and enjoy themselves,” Caruso says. “It’s more of a setting at a resort than a shopping center. The idea is that when people do that they spend money in a place they want to go to be entertained. The formula has worked for us very well. Our sales are substantially higher than the national average for malls, and all of our properties are 100 percent occupied with growth rates that are very strong. We think we’re doing really well, and this project will only add to that.”

A project like this was on the city of Glendale’s radar for a while, and it took Caruso to finally bring it to fruition.

“The city of Glendale wanted to build a project like this for a long time,” Caruso says. “They’ve been looking for it for over 20 years, so the opportunity was there. But what really attracted us to it were the demographics. There is an enormous population in a very mature area, enormous levels of wealth and high levels of education. It’s close to major California cities like Burbank and Pasadena and has some great freeways serving it, so it just makes a great location.”

"We knew that the demographics demanded better restaurants and better retail," says Todd Russell, executive vice president of leasing for Caruso Affliated. "We shudder at the thought of sameness, and I think you get that today in so many malls across America."

The Americana at Brand includes a few unique perks that set this project apart even from other Caruso ventures. The “Grand Chandelier” — with 1,200 crystals and 55 elegant lights that comprise the 12-foot-high, 60-lb stamp of elegance — is suspended gracefully over Caruso Avenue. Inspired by a similar chandelier created for Austrian empress Maria Theresa in the mid-18th century, Ernesto Aleman (also known for pieces in the Beverly Hills Hotel) created the work just for the new project.

There are also two sculptures onsite at the mixed-use development. Both works, “The Spirit of American Youth” and “America,” are replicas of famed sculptor Donald Harcourt De Lue’s works of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. The sculptures are both odes to America, commemorating the nation in its emotional wartime-inspired themes.

“There are a lot of layers of eye candy in this place, but [the De Lue sculptures] are two pieces of note in the property,” Caruso explains. “We were able to track down both original molds, and his apprentice re-sculpted them exactly the way it was originally done.”

Some might say, however, that the retailer list is just as impressive a work as the incorporated atmosphere of The Americana at Brand. With an extensive roster of today’s top upscale retailers, the retail center is set to make a splash in Glendale.

"We created a retail mix that is different and unique," says Russell. "In the end, it did not duplicate or take from any tenants next door at the adjacent Glendale Galleria. We really sought to create a new retail environment downtown for the city of Glendale."

And, as an added bonus, the center will feature a major attraction for gals and their guys with the first new concept Tiffany & Co. store. The store will offer the brand’s most contemporary fashions in a new in-store atmosphere.

“Our business is to make sure our retailers are successful and that the community enjoys them, and we can’t do every project that is put in front of us because of that high level of quality,” Caruso says. “We turn away 99 percent of the projects put in front of us because we only do the truly special ones. It’s like building a Rolls Royce — you only make so many of them. A worldwide brand like Tiffany knows that. They can open up a new concept store anywhere. The fact that they selected this project speaks a lot to what we’ve done. But there is great confidence in the site. We also have Kate Spade’s first store in the L.A. area, the second Barneys New York in L.A., Australian designer Peter Alexander’s first U.S. location. Katsuya is the hottest restaurant in the area.”

Caruso is proud to help bring the city into the upper echelon of area locales with an unparalleled retailer lineup.

“A lot of people thought Glendale had passed its best days with surrounding cities taking the better tenants, but we have a tenant lineup that is just spectacular,” Caruso says. “It will reinvent the idea of a mixed-use project. It’s more about being in a retail and lifestyle community that is like a resort, and living that way 24 hours a day.”

Says Russell, "There’s no repetition in the architectural design of the property. It’s just a beautiful, beautiful environment."

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