Developer Rick Caruso is best known for transforming Southern California's retail landscape with his splashy open-air shopping villages, such as the Promenade at Westlake Village and the Grove in Los Angeles' Fairfax district.
But if his projects are sometimes criticized as facsimiles of city life, Caruso couldn't be prouder of the location of the one building that bears his name: skid row.
On Wednesday, Para Los Ninos dedicated its original downtown headquarters as the Tina and Rick Caruso Child Development Center, one of eight centers run by the nonprofit, which assists low-income families by providing charter classes, meals, after-school care and counseling.
"It's in one of the poorest, most devastating areas of Los Angeles," Caruso said. The center "represents hope for children."
The center began in 1980 by providing day care for 45 children in the shell of a false-eyelash factory. It now serves 3,000 children a day at 21 facilities, with an annual operating budget of $18 million.
At the building's dedication Wednesday, police stood nearby, separating the homeless from children playing in the closed street behind a small white fence. Inside was a carnival-themed celebration, the result of a seven-year relationship between Para Los Ninos and the Caruso family, which has donated more than $500,000 to the agency.
"There was an immediate love affair," said Gisselle Acevedo, president of the nonprofit. She said the Carusos were enamored of the center's children during a 1999 tour, and that soon after they became contributors.
Board of Directors Chairman Roger Carrick remembers the Carusos' first gift of $100,000 toward a playground. He said such donations are important because they allow the organization to work outside the restrictions of government grants, which come with stipulations.
"It becomes the elastic that holds all the building blocks together," he said.
For the 2006 holidays, the Carusos visited Para Los Ninos with their four children, who helped hand out food, gift cards and 2-foot-tall teddy bears.
Caruso said a child at the center approached him and said, " 'I don't want my teddy bear to get dirty.' The problem is the apartment he lives in -- there's three families, and it's dirty. It's right in the middle of skid row. It just breaks your heart. He just wants to keep his teddy bear clean."
His father, Dollar Rent-a-Car founder Hank Caruso, was at the event with his son, who was also celebrating his 48th birthday, which was three days earlier.
