Rick Caruso, owner of the upscale Grove shopping center in Los Angeles and the luxury resort of Rosewood Miramar Beach in Montecito, has developed a procedure against the corona virus to reopen its properties almost as high as its own.
At its 10 malls in the Los Angeles area, hope to meet “physical long-distance ambassadors” to prevent crowds forming and officers who clean every bathroom stall after being used. Shields between guests and officers will be available, while valet parking and shoe polish will come out.
A beautiful trolley that offers visitors a ride around Grove and Americana at Brand in Glendale will live in their garage indefinitely. Workers’ temperatures will be checked every day, and hotel staff must pass a “foot bath” to ensure they do not track viruses in their shoes.
The occupancy of the elevator will be limited to one family, or household, per car at a time. And everyone who steps on Caruso’s property must wear a mask.
“That’s a small price we have to pay to get back together,” said Caruso, who now considers his mask “part of a daily uniform.”
Caruso wasn’t sure when he would be able to fully reopen his property, but he had just released detailed safety standards that his company has been working since March.
Outdoor malls, such as Palisades Village, are still open to visitors who walk around even though most shops are closed and restaurants only provide take-out services. Miramar only accepts important workers such as health services and emergency service providers.
The closure of COVID-19 was very painful, said Caruso, and at first it was “unimaginable” for business. But he believes the path to recovery lies in giving people a sense of security when they return to their favorite places.
“The world has changed, and that will never come back,” Caruso said. “Companies must change with that” and adapt to new customer preferences that are more sharply focused on their physical well-being.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it began by having peace of mind about using shared bathrooms, Bay Area real estate consultant, David Greensfelder.
“Public toilets are probably the single biggest problem for getting people back in public,” said Greensfelder, chief manager of Greensfelder Commercial Real Estate.
When the toilet is reopened at the Caruso mall, an officer will be present during all hours of operation to clean the stall after each use and ensure that no more than 50% of them are occupied at any given time. Terrycloth towels will be replaced with disposable towels, and directional floor decals will be applied to ensure proper pedestrian traffic flow.
In switching from the previous procedure, cleaning at the mall might be done in a very flamboyant manner like a dancing fountain that surrounds a tall golden statue in Americana.
“We used to make sure no one saw it being cleaned,” said Caruso, who wanted guests to meet the new-looking company mall, “as if it had just come out of the box.”
Now, he said, “we want to clean people up to be seen and be out there all day.”
The electrostatic misting machine, which is a non-toxic disinfectant sprayer, will be used in all areas of the property, including at least twice a day in the high touch point area.
Developer Rick Caruso was photographed in front of Manor House at the Rosewood Miramar Beach resort in Montecito.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
At Miramar, public areas will be cleaned every hour. Housekeepers will use a minimum of four different color coded microfiber fabrics each time they clean the guest room. Ultraviolet-light air purifiers have been installed in heating and air conditioning systems in the main building which only carry outside air instead of recycling it.
Such steps might have seemed extreme a few months ago, but now “that excess is really good” to reduce people’s anxiety, said Greensfelder, who doesn’t work for Caruso.
“There is a stress level around that everyone is trying to overcome,” he said. “Finding out how we will function in public areas is the key to reopening real estate.”
However, improved cleaning is expensive, and in malls, such operating costs are usually given to tenants, Greensfelder said. “Are costs sustainable if tenants see their sales hit and their costs rise?”
Caruso acknowledged that operational costs would rise, without specifying how much, but said his company would “absorb a lot of these costs for smaller tenants” and added that his company did not collect rent from smaller tenants while their business was closed. However, larger national tenants are expected to pay rent and operational costs.
Caruso said he would have full-time nurses on staff at his company to ensure proper health safety protocols were followed, and new standards were set up with the guidance of epidemiologists. Neha Nanda, medical director of infection prevention at USC’s Keck Medicine.
“If there is one thing we have learned from this pandemic, it is the importance of changing and adapting quickly to a constantly evolving environment,” Nanda said.
“Over the past few months, we have all made unimaginable sacrifices,” he said. “We must not allow our collective actions to be in vain because we need to redouble our efforts to enable the economy to be safely reopened in partnership with the medical community.”
Caruso described the closure as “perhaps the most complex tax challenge I have ever faced in business,” forcing the company into “survival mode” because its income dropped to almost zero while costs were fixed.
He said he was optimistic, however, that buyers wanted to return to the mall partly because they were outside, where the virus was likely to spread. The Grove was one of the top tourist attractions in the region before the pandemic struck.
“As soon as we say back, I think people will come back,” he said. “The challenge for us is managing the crowd so we can observe all the right protocols. Maybe this is the first time in history we have turned people around. “
