Rick Caruso

Founder, Executive Chairman, Caruso

The billionaire developer began as a real estate lawyer before setting out to revamp the traditional shopping mall, a quest that led to the Americana at Brand and the Grove, two major malls that appear poised to be among the few survivors of the asset class in Southern California. 

The company owns hotels and resorts, apartment complexes and retail centers throughout Southern California, with a smaller upscale entry, Palisades Village, saved by private firefighters while the neighborhood burned during the Jan. 2025 wildfires. Caruso founded Steadfast L.A., a nonprofit dedicated to helping the city rebuild from the wildfires that gives him a public platform, though he announced he would not run for elected office this year after talk swirled about a possible rematch against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass or a run for governor.

His firm, where Corrinne Verdery has been named day-to-day leader, via the Grove, will engage in a legal challenge to the city’s approval of a $1 billion expansion and renovation of the once CBS Television City studio being developed by Hackman Capital Partners. The lawsuits allege that the city’s approval of the redevelopment violated an environmental law that Caruso himself has rallied against in the past. Caruso’s ties throughout Southern California are broad and deep, with stints as president of the Los Angeles Police Commission and University of Southern California Board of Trustees, as a member of the board of Donald Bren’s Irvine Company and as a friend of CBRE’s Lew Horne going back to their college days.

— Alena Botros