As the new head of retail leasing at Caruso Affiliated, Kloe Colacarro spends lots of time mulling such questions as: “How can we keep our properties relevant?” and “What can we do to get our guests to keep coming back?” In fact, these are themes the 26-year-old, who graduated from the University of Southern California in 2011, was exploring even before being promoted to her current post at the Los Angeles–based firm in February. She had begun thinking about all this while she was still manager of specialty leasing and also as general manager of the West Valley portfolio. “Kloe has a great understanding of the retail climate and seems to be ahead of the curve all of the time in terms of retail tenants,” said Jackie Levy, Caruso’s executive vice president of operations.
As it happens, one of the conclusions Colacarro has drawn involves the importance of human interactions at the firm’s properties, which include The Grove, in Los Angeles, and Waterside Marina del Rey (Calif.). As manager of the Grove, Colacarro was instrumental in opening up Stylehaüs, a personal-style consultation service (now closed) that offered shoppers personal advice from stylists on wardrobe decisions — in the process helping to drive sales for Caruso’s tenants. “What I took away from the experience is how our customers like to shop,” Colacarro said. “They don’t just shop all high-end or all low-end.” This helped her understand the importance of having a wide-ranging tenant mix across a spectrum of price points.
Colacarro has also become aware of the premium that shoppers place on their time, which has led to ideas like the rollout of an app enabling them to do various things from a smartphone — such as make restaurant reservations, book appointments with the mall Santa Claus in advance and pay for on-site parking. “The app was really about giving people back their time,” she said. “We wanted their experience to be seamless.”
Colacarro was also an early adopter of the click-to-brick movement, and worked with popular online retailers to open temporary pop-up stores at Caruso’s shopping centers. “For a lot of these stores, what they do online translates to physical spaces extremely well,” Colacarro said. These temporary stores bring new energy — and new customers — to the online retailers and the shopping center alike. In February -Colacarro helped celebrity designer Lauren Conrad open her very first pop-up store, at the Grove, featuring Conrad’s Paper Crown clothing label and Rifle Paper Company stationery. The designer fared very well, Colacarro says. In November Colacarro did the same with online retailer Revolve, turning a 3,000-square-foot space at the Grove into an electric-pink showroom where shoppers took photos at the selfie stations and hobnobbed with the celebrities who happened to be on hand on opening night.
“We want to continue to be identified with brands that are staying ahead of the curve,” she said. Colacarro says she also plans to search out smaller boutiques. “Shoppers like the experience of walking into a place and discovering new pieces they couldn’t find anywhere else,” she said.
One of the things Colacarro has always admired about Caruso Affiliated’s retail properties is the way they engage with their neighborhoods when planning everything from tenant mix to landscape design, she says. As a result, each property has its own distinct personality, and many “become community centers and gathering spots,” she said. She is aiming for this same sort of harmonious partnership with the residents of Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, as she helps lead the redevelopment of Palisades Village, the city’s downtown retail drag that fell into disrepair during the recession. “Pacific Palisades is a very coastal town that is in dire need of a community center,” she said. In line with residents’ wishes, Colacarro is looking to attract unusual, artistic boutiques and local eateries to the street, creating a West Coast version of New York City’s trendy Elizabeth Street. Palisades Village is Caruso’s first foray into urban in-fill, but Colacarro believes this sort of project will continue to be a focus for the firm.
Caruso Affiliated’s strength remains its emphasis on customer service and on creating exceptional retail experiences, according to Levy. The company’s executives will be looking to keep infusing bursts of imagination and energy into the next generation of its shopping centers, he says, and those are traits Colacarro has in abundance. Said Levy: “She’s the perfect person to continue leading the trend.”
