Thousands of Pacific Palisades and Los Angeles residents assembled this month for a Christmas tree lighting event at Palisades Village, a retail complex largely unscathed in the fires that tore through the town nearly one year ago.
The event served as a reminder of just how far the community is from recovery. Even without major structural damage, the shopping complex remains closed. Most residents have yet to return to the coastal neighborhood, where construction crews drive most daily activity.
Danny Rainer, a Palisades resident, is preparing to move his family of four back to the area as their home, which survived the fires with minimal damage, completes smoke remediation.
But daily life will look a lot different, one year later. Previously, his family could walk to Erewhon, Ralphs or Gelson’s for groceries, or stop by one of several popular restaurants just blocks from their home in the El Medio Bluffs area. Now grocery runs and errands require a 20-minute drive.
Rainer, an executive vice president at JLL who oversees office leasing from the firm’s Century City office, said that even as residents navigate city permitting delays and insurance hurdles, one question dominates conversations among those planning to return: Which retailers will reopen, and when?
Uncertainty among retailers — and limited publicly available data — has fueled a rumor mill about which businesses plan to return, where they might reopen and what will replace some of the neighborhood’s most heavily damaged properties, Rainer said.
For Pacific Palisades commercial real estate, “the question isn’t whether demand exists — it’s when enough rooftops return for businesses to bet on normal foot traffic again,” said Mitchell Stokes, a principal at Avison Young who has lined up a new tenant for one of the few undamaged commercial properties in the neighborhood.
Stokes said day-to-day signals are encouraging. He’s seeing more inbound calls from retailers seeking space and watching more homes go vertical, even as brokers and tenants alike acknowledge the rebuild will take time.
A major boost is expected from the roughly $60 million renovation of the Caruso-owned Palisades Village, with tenants expected to open in August 2026.
Many of Pacific Palisades’ most popular retail and dining spots remain closed, though a handful of chains and local operators, including CVS, Chipotle and hardware store Anawalt Lumber, have reopened. With boosted recovery efforts — from grants and government programs — more clarity is emerging heading into the new year.
What is underway?
Nearly 100 commercial structures were damaged in the fires; none of the destroyed properties has been rebuilt.
The most prominent retail site destroyed is the historic Spanish Colonial Revival mixed-use center called the Business Block, which housed restaurant Cosa Nostra Trattoria and Starbucks, among other businesses. The complex is still a burned-out shell, but construction barricades are up as the owner rebuilds.
Another destroyed commercial hub is a Chase Bank-anchored office complex called Palisades Plaza at 15200 W. Sunset Blvd. that also housed a stock brokerage and wellness services. The property, which was a hulk of twisted metal and mortar 11 months ago, has since been cleared and rebuilding is underway. Chase has opened a branch and ATMs elsewhere in the neighborhood.
A destroyed Ralphs store at 15120 W. Sunset Blvd. is expected to return to the Palisades in coming years, but a construction timeline is unclear. It's also not clear whether Gelson's, which previously operated a store at 15424 Sunset Blvd., will return.
Another once-prominent area grocer, Erewhon, is in the process of renovating its store at Palisades Village along with other property improvements.
Most of the original Palisades Village tenants — which also included clothing stores and eateries — are expected to return once renovations wrap next year. The complex is slated to be anchored by a new Italian steakhouse, Spacca Tutto, from award-winning chef Nancy Silverton, along with a store by Palisades apparel retailer Elyse Walker, whose eponymous store was burned.
"We’ve been encouraged by the shared commitment of both our existing and new tenants to rebuild the Palisades," Corinne Verdery, chief executive officer of Caruso, told CoStar News. "Our top priority is reopening Palisades Village safely. The remediation work we are doing is extensive and probably more than we need, but we want everyone to feel safe coming back."
What is open?
Businesses now open in the Palisades are mainly catering to the construction workers and homeowners who visit the area during the day. The Palisades Garden Cafe serves as a hub, reopening early and serving as a meeting point for people visiting the Palisades.
CVS Pharmacy was the first major retailer to reopen in Pacific Palisades, in November. And while Chase Bank, Chipotle and a couple of locally owned restaurants have reopened, the bulk of businesses remain shuttered.
Christine Deschaine, senior vice president of brokerage with KWP Commercial, has spent the past several months placing longtime Palisades tenants into small-format retail spaces in Brentwood and Santa Monica, helping them keep their doors open while the neighborhood rebuilds.
Corridors like San Vicente Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard and Montana Avenue have absorbed displaced spending as residents adjust grocery, dining and shopping patterns, she told CoStar News.
“These are tenants who had been in the Palisades for a long time, and they just said, ‘I still want to be in business. What happened doesn’t define my business, and I want my customers to know where to find me,'" Deschaine said.
Help is available for small retailers trying to get back on their feet. Local and state governments as well as private groups have launched funding and support programs. And Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has issued an executive order aimed at further expediting commercial rebuilding in the Pacific Palisades.
Retailers are waiting
For the commercial buildings that survived the fires but lost tenants, interest is beginning to return, said Mitchell Stokes, a principal at Avison Young.
He is working to lease retail and other commercial space near the former Ralphs at the heart of Pacific Palisades. While the Ralphs building itself burned, several other structures in the center remained intact.
Before the fire, his team was close to signing a 10-year lease with a large international retailer for the roughly 9,100-square-foot former Pharmaca pharmacy space at 15150 W. Sunset Blvd. That deal stalled, but the tenant picked up discussions over the summer, asking to push the opening timeline out by about a year.
In the interim, another business stepped forward and agreed to the asking rent on the former Pharmaca store, and Stokes said a lease is nearing completion.
Stokes said most pre-fire tenants are likely to return, with a handful already operating in surviving buildings. Insured landlords are focused on rebuilding rather than selling, limiting near-term property turnover.
For many families, the decision to come back isn’t just about rebuilding houses, it’s also about restoring the rhythms of daily life in a neighborhood still finding its footing.
“People will move back to their homes if they can,” Rainer said. “But knowing where you’ll shop, eat and take your kids still matters, even if you’ve figured out temporary work-arounds.”