Caruso Names Leasing SVP

Russell's responsibilities for the past 10 years included leasing, merchandising and repositioning for South Coast Plaza along with marketing to national and international retail clients. He brings more than 20 years of retail industry experience to his new post. Caruso Affiliated, headed by Rick J. Caruso, CEO, has six projects under way throughout California. A retail center in Thousand Oaks and the redevelopment of a large community retail center in Marina del Rey are currently under construction. The others, either in planning or pre-development, include The Americana at Brand in Glendale; a mixed-use town center in Playa Vista; the first-ever racetrack retail, entertainment and housing venues at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia; and Golden Gate Fields in Albany.

Russell was among three executives named to new positions recently at Los Angeles area companies in the commercial real estate industry. The others were Lillian Kuo as asset manager at the Los Angeles office of Broadreach Capital Partners and Juan C. Dueñas as VP of acquisitions AEW Capital Management.

Kuo will be in charge of Broadreach Capital's 600,000-sf Southern California commercial real estate portfolio, according to David Simon, Broadreach managing director and head of the company's Southern California operation. Kuo joins Broadreach from CommonWealth Partners LLC, where she was responsible for the performance of a $750 million portfolio of commercial real estate properties in Los Angeles, Denver, Austin and Dallas. At Broadreach, one of her first duties will be overseeing the $4 million redevelopment master plan of Tribeca West, a 151,000-sf office complex in West Los Angeles that Broadreach acquired last month.

Dueñas, who has joined the Los Angeles office of AEW in its direct investments group, will focus on acquisitions of retail, office and industrial properties in Northern California, the Pacific Northwest, Denver and Nevada. He will be part of an acquisition team with more than $1.6 billion to invest on behalf of AEW clients. Dueñas joins AEW from CB Richard Ellis Investors, where he was acquisition director in the Los Angeles office. He joined the firm in 1997, and during his tenure, sourced and closed on $1.1 billion in equity investments.