For eighteen months the corner of Sunset and Swarthmore has been a construction site behind chain link. On Saturday, August 15, at 10 a.m., that changes. Palisades Village will unlock its gates to the public for the first time since the January 2025 fire, and the tenant list Caruso released with the announcement is the closest thing this neighborhood has to a recovery scorecard.
The short version is that most of what you remember is coming back. The longer version, and the one that actually matters if you live here, is that the mix is different enough to change how the Village will feel on a Tuesday afternoon.
The reopening, by the numbers that count
Palisades Village will reopen to the public Aug. 15 after more than $100 million in renovations and cleanup work following the Palisades Fire. The buildings themselves survived the fire. What took eighteen months was everything else. The outdoor shopping and dining center required extensive repairs and environmental remediation after smoke, ash and debris left contaminants behind. The center's restoration included stripping buildings to their frames, treating wood and rebuilding walls and interiors so shops and restaurants could return.
Three data points frame what you'll walk into next month:
- Opening day starts at 10 a.m. with events starting at 10 a.m. and a "big surprise" planned for later in the evening.
- 99% of the space is leased. The Village, which first opened in 2018, is now 99% leased. Most former tenants are returning, while nearly one-third of the businesses will be new to the center.
- The Village survived on its own terms. Palisades Village replaced the neighborhood's aging retail district in 2018, and the luxury-leaning development's mix of fire-resistant building materials and private firefighters saved it from destruction, though it still faced $100 million in post-fire repairs.
The one-third figure is the one to hold onto. Two out of every three storefronts you walk past on August 15 will be a familiar face. One in three will not be.
The returning tenants carry the emotional weight
The names doing the emotional work here are the ones parents and residents identified with the block before it was a block. Returning businesses include Loomey's Toys, K Bakery, Elyse Walker, Erewhon, Brunello Cucinelli, Zimmermann, Veronica Beard, A.L.C., Blue Ribbon Sushi, and Angelini Ristorante & Bar.
Elyse Walker's return is the one that quietly anchors everything else. Her original Antioch Street boutique was destroyed in the fire, and the Village store is effectively a relocation and a rebuild in one. Walker, whose original boutique on Antioch Street was destroyed in the January wildfires, will relocate to a 5,000-square-foot space at the entrance to the Village on Sunset Boulevard and Swarthmore Avenue. She opened her first store in the Palisades in 1999 after moving from New York, raising her family nearby and growing her business from a modest 900-square-foot space into a nationally recognized retail brand. The store had just marked its 25th anniversary before it was lost in the fires. If you were here before, you know the store was a school-pickup meeting point as much as a boutique.
Angelini is the other one to watch, and to watch carefully. Chef Gino Angelini is coming back, but he is coming back quietly. Angelini plans to reopen Angelini Ristorante & Bar next month, though he told the Times the restaurant will return quietly out of respect for residents still recovering from the disaster. "We won't do a big celebrity open," Angelini told the newspaper. "We want to have a very soft opening and see our customers come back." Expect no ribbon, no press, and a reservation book that fills through word of mouth first.
The new tenants tell you what comes next
If the returning list is a memory exercise, the newcomers list is a bet on where the neighborhood is heading. New additions include Nancy Silverton's Spacca Tutto, LESET's first West Coast location, Violet Grey, and Xirena.
Two of those signings matter more than the others.
Spacca Tutto. Spacca Tutto, a casual Chi Spacca spinoff from chef Nancy Silverton, is the marquee food arrival, and it lands on the Village with real weight. Nancy Silverton and Rick Caruso recently announced a new restaurant that will anchor The Village in the Palisades, called Spacca Tutto, set to open in August 2026. A Silverton concept anchoring the dining side gives the Village something it did not have before the fire: a destination restaurant residents from Brentwood and Santa Monica will drive over the hill for. That reshapes weekend parking and weeknight tables on Swarthmore in ways worth thinking about now.
LESET. The Los Angeles-based activewear label is opening LESET's first West Coast location here, in a Palisades center rather than in Beverly Hills or on Abbot Kinney. That is a specific signal about which affluent walkable district a homegrown brand thinks matters most to its customer in 2026.
Violet Grey and Xirena round out the new list as LA-based lifestyle and fashion arrivals. The overall pattern is worth noting: a third of the Village is being tilted toward a more editorial, more restaurant-forward mix than the 2018 version.
The block around the Village is still catching up
If you have not driven through recently, the streetscape outside the Village is the reason the reopening feels like both a milestone and a false horizon.
The residential areas residing just across the street were almost entirely destroyed; the couple of blocks of adjacent businesses met mixed fates, while the storefronts nearby along Via De La Paz were nearly completely lost. The streetscape is a mix of empty lots and in-progress construction. According to the City of L.A., only 28 new homes in the Palisades have been cleared for move-ins, but more positively, rebuilding permits have been issued for 1,420 properties.
Two other retail data points are worth knowing before you walk over on the 15th:
- Pali Trading Post opened July 1. It is small, but it is first. The Palisades' first new business since the 2025 fire officially opened on July 1 with a ribbon-cutting, news crews, and crowds of excited former Palisades residents. Amidst the swarm of construction projects, Pali Trading Post is a welcome reprieve where you can find household items, birthday gifts, self-care products, and more.
- The Business Block and Palisades Plaza are still under construction. 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. 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.
The takeaway: the Village will be an island of finished retail before its neighbors catch up. Grocery, in particular, is still an open question. That will shape traffic patterns through the Village well into 2027.
What August 15 will actually feel like
Caruso has staged a full-day event. The company said Aug. 15 will feature a full day of curated events, immersive experiences and other programming, with additional details expected in the coming weeks. Expect the morning to belong to families and longtime residents, the afternoon to belong to press and out-of-neighborhood visitors, and the evening to belong to the "big surprise" the developer has hinted at without describing.
Two practical notes if you plan to go:
- If you want to talk to shop owners rather than crowds, aim for the first ninety minutes after the 10 a.m. open, or come back the following Tuesday.
- Angelini is unlikely to be open on the 15th itself. A soft opening in the weeks following is the more probable path.
The one line to remember
The Village coming back is not the Palisades coming back. It is the Palisades getting its living room back while the rest of the house is still being framed. For residents who have spent a year and a half without a place to run into a neighbor by accident, that is not a small thing. It is also not the finish line.
If you own a home in the Palisades and are weighing what the next twelve months look like, from timing a sale to understanding how the returning commercial base affects value on your street, Gina Martino can walk you through the block-by-block picture in detail. To join her private list for off-market opportunities across Pacific Palisades and the wider Westside, request access to receive exclusive off-market listings.
