For nineteen months the corner of Sunset and Swarthmore has been the quietest intersection in Pacific Palisades. On Saturday, August 15, 2026, it stops being quiet. The story most residents already know is the return. The story worth reading is that the Village that reopens is not the one that closed.
Forty-six businesses are expected to operate at Palisades Village when the gates swing open. The center is 99 percent leased, most former tenants are returning, and nearly one-third of the businesses will be new to the property. Against a pre-fire footprint of just over forty storefronts, that shift is not cosmetic. Roughly a dozen storefronts will carry names that were not there before January 2025, and the weekend habits residents built around specific counters are being rewritten in the same square footage.
Who is coming back, who is new, and who chose not to return
The reopening list has been reported piecemeal across a half-dozen outlets. Consolidated, it looks like this.
| Returning | New to the property | Not returning |
|---|---|---|
| elysewalker, Towne by Elyse Walker, Loomey's Toys, K Bakery, Erewhon, Brunello Cucinelli, Zimmermann, Veronica Beard, A.L.C., Blue Ribbon Sushi, Angelini Ristorante & Bar, Alfred, McConnell's, Porta Via, Paige, Buck Mason, Jennifer Meyer, Isabel Marant, Golden Goose, Anine Bing, Jacques Marie Mage, Mother, Bay Theater | Spacca Tutto (Nancy Silverton), LESET, Violet Grey, Xirena | Aerin, Aesop, Lululemon, Saint Laurent |
A few of those lines carry more weight than the alphabetical listing suggests.
Approximately 60 percent of Palisades Village's original tenants will return, but others including Aerin, Aesop, Lululemon and Saint Laurent elected not to come back, and The Draycott had already announced its closure days before the fires. The Draycott's former space is not staying empty. Nancy Silverton's new Italian steakhouse, Spacca Tutto, will open in the space formerly occupied by The Draycott. It is the James Beard Award-winning chef's first Westside restaurant.
Elyse Walker's move is also more than a return. 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. After nearly three decades directly across the street, the flagship crosses the intersection.
Then there is the operator who is deliberately not making noise. "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." That is a specific editorial choice, and it tells you something about how the operators themselves are reading the room.
The two absences that will still shape your week
August 15 is being programmed as an event. Aug. 15 will feature a full day of curated events, immersive experiences and other programming, with additional details expected in the coming weeks. The temptation is to treat the ribbon-cutting as a finish line. It is closer to a hinge, because two commercial holes at the heart of the village will still be open on August 16.
The first is groceries. The Ralphs building at Sunset and Swarthmore burned. Commercial space near the former Ralphs is being leased, but the site itself is not part of the August 15 reopening, and a specialty grocer inside the Village does not replace a full-service supermarket at that intersection. If you were used to walking down for a rotisserie chicken on a Tuesday, that trip still ends in the car.
The second is the Business Block. The Spanish Colonial-style structure has been cleared of debris and awaits reconstruction. Its return will be measured in years, not months. Anything you associated with those storefronts, the dry cleaner drop, the hardware run, the quick errand between school pickups, is still displaced.
Both gaps are why Anawalt Lumber and CVS matter more than their signage suggests. CVS Pharmacy was the first major retailer to reopen in November, and Chase Bank, Chipotle, and a couple of locally owned restaurants have also reopened. Anawalt Lumber, unsurprisingly, has been part of that early group.
How Silverton and LESET quietly rewrite the traffic pattern
The two headline new tenants are doing different work.
A Silverton restaurant reshapes reservation math across the Westside. If you have tried to book Mozza on a Friday, you know the pattern. Spacca Tutto will draw diners from Brentwood, Santa Monica and beyond into the Village on nights when the pre-fire tenant mix would have kept the crowd local. That is upside for residents who like the energy, and a scheduling adjustment for residents who used to think of a walk-in Friday dinner as a reasonable plan.
A LESET flagship signals that the Village is being positioned to draw shoppers from Brentwood and Santa Monica back up the hill, not just serve the residents who used to walk to it. That is Caruso's read on what the second act of the Village needs to be. It is also a preview of how weekend parking will feel.
"This community is back. We're bringing back a lot of local favorites." — Rick Caruso, in a video announcing the August 15 date
Both statements can be true at once. The favorites are back. The mix is different. Residents who walked to specific counters for a specific reason will find some of those counters and some new ones, and roughly a dozen storefronts they will need to learn.
What is already open, and what is still operating in exile
While you wait for August 15, the daytime rhythm of the neighborhood is not a blank. The Palisades Garden Cafe has served as a meeting point for construction crews and returning homeowners. CVS, Chase and Chipotle have been operating since late 2025. 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.
Several pre-fire tenants are still operating in exile down the hill and worth a visit if you have not tracked them since the winter of 2025. Christine Deschaine of KWP Commercial has spent 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. Two names to know: Cinque Terre West, an Italian restaurant that relocated to Rose Ave., was welcomed into Venice with open arms. "Since day one, even while we were getting things together, people would stop and say, 'Welcome to the neighborhood,'" says co-owner Marlo Vinzoni. And beloved neighborhood staple Flour Pizzeria is also frequented by former residents at its new Brentwood location. "We still have a constant stream of Palisadians on a regular basis," says co-founder Robert Flutie.
Whether those tenants eventually cross back over the hill is the second chapter of this story. Nothing on August 15 answers that.
Reading the reopening honestly
The scale of what is not yet rebuilt is easy to lose in a ribbon-cutting. Cal Fire's post-incident tally recorded that the Palisades Fire destroyed 6,822 structures, including more than 5,500 homes and about 100 commercial buildings. One reopened center against roughly a hundred commercial buildings is the frame worth holding.
That is not a reason to under-celebrate August 15. It is a reason to read it accurately. The Village that reopens will look, at first glance, like the one that closed. Same terracotta rooflines. Same walkable geometry. Same Bay Theater marquee. The difference is compositional, and it will show up in small ways for months: a different hostess at the door of your usual dinner, a bag from a store that was not there in December 2024, a walk down Swarthmore that ends at a construction fence instead of a bakery counter.
For homeowners tracking what the Village reopening signals for property values, the pace of residential rebuilds, and how the surrounding commercial recovery affects long-term positioning in the Palisades market, we work with clients quietly on both sides of that conversation. Book an appointment with The Smith Associates to discuss what the next twelve months of Palisades recovery mean for your property.
