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Elyse Walker placed a bet in 1999. Pacific Palisade and Brentwood residents are more about shopping for fashion from nearby designers than driving to Beverly Hills.
Initially, her boutique of the same name, which is just 800 square feet, became the cornerstone of the retail empire that now stretches from Tribeca to Newport Beach, portraying celebrities like Jennifer Garner and Kate Hudson. New restaurants and boutiques also moved, pushing for the renewal of downtown Pallisard.
That all changed on January 7th, when the Palisade Fire levelled Walker’s flagship stores and thousands of other homes and businesses.
On Wednesday, Walker proudly announced her next bet on the neighborhood where she raised her two sons.
In downtown Palisade, she and developer Rick Caruso have revealed that Caruso’s Pallisade village shopping centre will resume in mid-2026, with her flagship store, Elliswalker, to become the latest marquee tenant.
“We hope this will serve as a catalyst for other retailers, brands, large businesses and small businesses to return to Pallisade, Malibu, Altadena and Pasadena,” Walker said in an interview. “Twenty-five years ago we planted seeds in this community, and now we’re doing it again.”
Caruso told the Times later this year he plans to resume the annual Christmas tree and Menora Lighting in the village of Parisades. He also said he would take on the costs of new landscaping and sidewalks on the streets around the shopping centre.
According to him, the goal is to create visible anchors to towns in the midst of a massive recovery, and accelerate the revitalization of a vibrant and vibrant community.
“This is a really big deal,” Caruso said. “When a retailer like Ellis opens his shop in the community, that’s a strong voice of confidence that there’s a bright future here. I really believe that she and our organization, Palisades, will not be able to stop revitalization.”
The news comes at a time of frustration and uncertainty as Palisade residents recover from wildfire devastation and tackle massive displacement of their communities. Thousands have moved to different parts of Southern California or are scattered across the US
“The fact that we have this hub in the middle of town is a ray of hope that we can get back sooner,” said Chris Fail, a Palisades native who moved six times after the fire before settling on a rental in Manhattan Beach. His wife, Mia Fail, said she felt emotional thoughts about what was lost in the flames. The couple is currently in the early stages of reconstruction.
“We are traumatized by the loss of all our communities,” she said, listing improvisation gatherings at restaurants, Saturday’s baseball games, the annual Christmas tree lighting and the July 4 parade. “To get all these things back is truly a neighborhood lifeline and joy. That’s what makes Pallisard special: it’s a small town in a big city.”
Walker chose to open a shop on Antioch Street more than 25 years ago, making it easy to walk to his son’s school.
“We were between three churches, two coffee shops and five schools. That had nothing to do with joint tenancy yet,” Walker said. “I knew this was a place where people would roam.”
Her store attracted heeled women from across the area, and she expanded the store’s footprint six times, reaching nearly 6,500 square feet. Her store generated $5,000 in sales per square foot. She developed a team of private shoppers and stylists who visited clients at home for curated fashion.
Along the way, Walker became ambassadors to Pallisard retailers and business owners, including cinemas, Cafe Vida, Lemon Nail, which brought Eleon and Chanel, and Palisade Village in Caruso.
“The people who live in Pallisad don’t want to leave. It’s a magical place. They cuddle up to the mountains right by the sea,” Walker said.
On January 7th, Caruso relied on a fleet of civilian firefighters to prevent the flames from destroying the village of Pallisard and nearby facilities.
However, Walker’s store was reduced to tile ble, a product burned by Inferno.
The store has around 30 employees, and Walker said he is in “sink or swimming mode,” continuing to hire staff, trudges through the painstaking work of serving local customers through stores in Calabasas and Newport Beach and dealing with insurance.
“The first thing I said to the team: there are no four walls that define me, there are no four walls that define magic,” she said.
She recalls a couple she met in the store, a woman she learned she was pregnant there, and a local resident who had passed away and needed a dress for her funeral.
“A lot of things happened in the dressing room of that store, but none of them have disappeared. Those relationships, friendships and trust are still there,” Walker said.
With Walker’s shop opening in the village of Palisade in the spring or summer of 2026 and new trees, streetscapes and upgraded sidewalks coming downtown, Caruso said he hopes the area will become a cradle and beacon of redevelopment.
“Hopefully it will spur other landlords into investing in the building, opening up and spurring other retailers,” he said.
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