“Some may say that this project is too elegant, that it’s too sophisticated for Glendale,” said Rick Caruso, president and chief executive officer of Americana developer Caruso Affiliated. “Well that’s just dead wrong.”
Caruso billed the event as a celebration of the project’s completion — it opens to the public today — but he also used it as an opportunity to thank those who helped bring it to fruition.
Dozens of former Glendale City Council members and mayors strolled the Americana’s nearly 2-acre park, sipping cocktails and marveling at the 15.5-acre development before the crowd was ushered up to the roof for a filet mignon dinner personally catered by Wolfgang Puck.
“The question I keep hearing over and over is, ‘Are we in Glendale?’” Mayor John Drayman said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a close friend of Caruso, touted the project as a boon for local businesses.
“With every Caruso project, there is great energy,” Schwarzenegger said. “It makes shopping fun, and also it lifts up the surrounding areas so all the businesses in this are going to benefit from this.”
Other guests included a group of jurors who decided in favor of Caruso Affiliated in its drawn-out legal battle with Glendale Galleria owner General Growth Properties, handing Caruso $89 million in damages in November.
In an address to the audience — his face portrayed on giant video monitors on both sides of a raised stage — Caruso had the jurors stand to rousing applause and then took verbal jabs at General Growth, singling out the mall owner for its staunch opposition to the Americana.
