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Has Rick Caruso reinvented the shopping center, as he and his champions claim? Or has the Southern California developer just put a more expensive set of clothes on an old formula?
The question is probably academic to the crowds who stroll among the ornate buildings he erected at the Promenade at Westlake in Thousand Oaks. Since opening last year, this 210,000-square-foot shopping center, anchored by a Bristol Farms supermarket and an eight-screen Mann Theatres, has become the closest thing to a town square in a city otherwise lacking in public space or night life.
While Caruso does not embrace the term "entertainment center," he is a notable exponent of a new style of shopping center that encourages people to linger rather than make a few purchases and dash away. He is also one of a growing number of developers who have found a way to cash in on the vogue of malls that mimic downtown streets and urban ambience.
In the coming months, Caruso's formula will be tested several more times: His next center, the Commons at Calabasas, will open Thursday. Later this year, his company, Caruso Affiliated Holdings of Santa Monica, will start construction on the controversial expansion of historical Farmers Market in Los Angeles.
While Caruso is clearly pleased to be gaining a reputation as a developer who creates pleasant, walker-friendly places, he is also pragmatic about his reason for doing so.
"Most people who go to malls stay about 30 minutes to an hour," he said during an interview in a construction trailer on the Calabasas site. "I want people to stay three or four hours. The longer I can keep the customer on the property, the more money they will spend."
To encourage people to lollygag on their shopping trips, Caruso invested $40 million to create a set of faux-European buildings, including towers, arches and Classical columns. Landscaping for the 190,000-square-foot Calabasas center includes miniature streams, waterfalls and footbridges.
Grand gestures should be no surprise coming from a developer who professes admiration for...