While the Village Rebuilds, Highlands Plaza Has Become the Palisades' Everyday Errand Stop

Start at 514 Palisades Drive with a Starbucks cup. Walk a few doors to 538, where Spruzzo has been serving since May 2025. One more storefront brings you to 542 1/2, a general store that opened in September and sells kitchenware, specialty tea and fine jewelry. Next door, at 542, a martial arts studio that spent 43 years in the Palisades runs classes. Then 548, where a restaurant that anchored the Village for 23 years has announced its return.

For most of the Palisades' history, that string of addresses was the small neighborhood center at the foot of the Highlands. Today it holds more of the Palisades' daily errands than any other block in town. It is also where several businesses from the destroyed Business Block are restarting.

The Center That Came Through

The Highlands shopping center at Palisades Drive and Sunset Boulevard reopened early. Spruzzo reopened on May 1, 2025 after being closed for more than three months following the fire. A week later, the Palisadian-Post's running list of reopened Palisades businesses included Moku Sushi at 524 Palisades Drive and Highland Postal Center at 528, both reopened in some capacity. Starbucks at 514 Palisades Drive reopened on July 28, 2025. Palisades Wine & Spirits at 544 came back that September.

Uphill, the office and retail building at 1515 Palisades Drive was spared by the fire, according to a September 4, 2026 commercial real estate column in the Palisadian-Post. One of its tenants, Hair by Heather Joy in Suite O3, first opened in 2021 and reopened in March 2025.

That column measured how far each Palisades commercial district had come. It described the Highlands center as "seems to be thriving" and said the Highlands is "much further along" than the town's other commercial areas. Before the fire, the Marquez Knolls district held Vittorio Ristorante, Ronny's Market, Knolls Pharmacy and other everyday businesses. Its properties have several owners, and the column says three of the four have announced plans to rebuild. It also notes that several owners with different insurers tend to make rebuilding slower. At Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway, the same column found no visible construction on the former small center at 17338 Sunset Boulevard.

Highlands Plaza had a head start, and that head start is now pulling in new tenants.

Who Moved Up the Hill

The most telling openings at Highlands Plaza in 2026 are businesses that used to be somewhere else in the Palisades.

Gerry Blanck's Martial Arts Center, 542 Palisades Drive. Blanck had been in Pacific Palisades for 43 years when the January 2025 fire destroyed his studio at 16624 Marquez Avenue. His longtime earlier location at 881 Alma Real Drive burned as well. For the year after the fire, he taught three days a week at MuDo Integrated Martial Art on Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica, the Palisadian-Post reported. The return came through Build Back Pali, a nonprofit started by three Palisades teenagers that raised more than $500,000 for local business recovery. It gave Blanck $50,000 on the condition that he sign a lease in the Palisades. He signed a three-year lease on about 1,200 square feet in Highlands Plaza, and the grant covers his deposit and first few months of rent. Private lessons started there May 1, 2026, and the grand opening was June 1. "There's a core group of kids and adults that I didn't have to advertise for," Blanck told the Post.

Palisades General Store, 542 1/2 Palisades Drive. Owner Amy Russo co-owned Obsessed, the jewelry boutique at 875 Via de la Paz that the fire destroyed. She did not reopen the same shop. She built a wider one. The General Store soft-opened in mid-August and held its grand opening on Saturday, September 19. It sells Loonen Water, specialty tea blends, home décor, kitchenware, clothing, candles made in West Hollywood, and jewelry from Obsessed's Phoenix collection in the back. "The store is filled with everything I love," Russo told the Palisadian-Post. The store is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Russo brought her neighbors into the opening. Spruzzo, a few doors away, catered it along with Café Vida, the next arrival. Marcello Vides of Buenas Florals made bouquets out front that day. He plans to deliver grab-and-go arrangements to the store every Thursday, mixing herbs such as mint and rosemary with roses. A frozen yogurt machine handed out samples in a corner, and the Post reported that frozen yogurt will become a permanent item at the store.

The Post put the pattern plainly in its Blanck profile. The Yogurt Shoppe, which also received Build Back Pali funding, and Café Vida both planned to move to Highlands Plaza from in or near the Business Block. The Post called that cluster "the kind of critical mass that can start to shift the momentum of a recovery."

Door by Door

Here is the center as recent local reporting describes it. Several of these statuses come from dated lists, and the source column shows when each one was reported.

The Palisadian-Post business directory is the best place to check hours and current status before you go.

The Next Doors to Open

Café Vida. The Latin-inspired restaurant opened in 2002 and anchored the Village for 23 years before the January 2025 fire destroyed its home. During the closure, owner Luis Castaneda's group kept its Culver City and El Segundo locations running. In September, Palisades News reported that the restaurant had filed for a liquor license at 548 Palisades Drive, the former K Bakery Eatery + Bakeshop space, with an October target, citing earlier reporting by What Now Los Angeles. The menu is set to bring back buttermilk pancakes, chilaquiles, huevos rancheros and fresh-squeezed juices. Once the alcohol permit comes through, mimosas, Bloody Marys and sangria will return as well. In late October, Café Vida's website still listed the Palisades location as "Coming Soon Fall 2026," so check there before planning a brunch. The Palisadian-Post's May report noted that a patio is planned and that the new dining room is smaller than the old Antioch Street space.

The Yogurt Shoppe. It has announced a move to Highlands Plaza, but no unit or opening date has been published. In the meantime, the General Store's frozen yogurt fills that gap two doors down.

Downtown is gaining ground too, on its own schedule. The Palisadian-Post reported on October 19 that Caruso, Paramount and The Lot plan to reopen the Bay Theater in Palisades Village before the end of 2026, with first-run and classic films and dine-in service. No date had been announced. The September commercial column expects Erewhon at Palisades Village in January 2027, which would give the Palisades two major grocery stores alongside the Vons at Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway.

Until then, the Village's weekly anchor is Wednesday afternoon. The Pacific Palisades Farmers Market reopened on Swarthmore Avenue on August 19. The Palisades Village calendar lists it every Wednesday from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. through December 30, 2026. A Wednesday that starts with coffee at 514 Palisades Drive and ends with produce on Swarthmore now covers both of the Palisades' working commercial centers.

Amir Jawaherian follows the Palisades recovery address by address, both the commercial blocks and the residential streets around them. If you are deciding when to rebuild, hold or sell in the Palisades, schedule a private, confidential consultation.