{"id":295172,"date":"2026-05-01T16:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/295172\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T16:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:50:09","slug":"changing-the-game-inside-sam-nazarians-new-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/295172\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing the Game: Inside Sam Nazarian\u2019s New Chapter\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Architect of What\u2019s Next\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sam Nazarian built his first empire on velvet ropes, bottle\u00a0service\u00a0and an instinct for creating the buzz. Today, with a new focus on wellness,\u00a0longevity\u00a0and global scalability, he is creating something even more ambitious: a reimagining not just of his brand, but of hospitality itself. He is betting Los Angeles will give him another shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The building on La Cienega has cycled through names \u2014 La Cage Aux Folles, Prey, Greystone Manor, Nightingale and now Zouk \u2014 but one constant has been Nazarian. For years, he quietly rebuilt,\u00a0rebranded\u00a0and relaunched it before public opinion could settle. That instinct to refresh before stagnation set in defined his first act. Now, it audaciously defines his second act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Zouk\"ZoukZouk Los AngelesCredit: Courtesy SBE<\/p>\n

The man discussing mitochondrial performance over lunch today is a different version of the nightlife impresario that Los Angeles once dubbed \u201cMr. Big.\u201d Between bites of what he cheerfully calls \u201cguacamole sticks,\u201d he walks through a future built on longevity science and global scale. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to get as healthy as I can,\u201d he says, with the ease of a man who has long since made peace with reinvention. He is still 6-foot-4 and incredibly charismatic, but his ambitions have shifted from curating rooms to building global systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nazarian 2.0 is working on a sprawling portfolio. HQ Hotels and Residences, developed with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, has multiple locations open or planned across the United States. The Estate, his wellness and longevity platform co-founded with Tony Robbins, Marc Anthony and strategist Richard Attias, is\u00a0literally lifestyle\u00a0redefined. There is also a food-and-beverage ecosystem called Everybody\u00a0Eats\u00a0and a Latin-focused luxury initiative targeting what he estimates as a\u00a0$3.2 trillion\u00a0underserved market. Add to that\u00a0a hybrid hotel-and-condo project in Miami with Anthony and Sofia Vergara, and the scope becomes clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether this is a comeback, a reinvention or a\u00a0replatforming\u00a0is\u00a0almost beside\u00a0the point. In Los Angeles, ambition itself is currency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0First\u00a0Act\u00a0<\/p>\n

To Understand Nazarian\u2019s second act, you\u00a0have to\u00a0understand the scale of his first.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His story begins in familiar Los Angeles fashion. His parents fled Tehran during the 1978 revolution, arriving in Los Angeles with four children and limited resources. Nazarian grew up sharing a hotel\u00a0room on Wilshire Boulevard before his family rebuilt their fortunes. The bond between his family and the city runs deeper than geography or commerce.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

\u201cL.A. became the largest Iranian community in the diaspora outside of Iran,\u201d he says. \u201cL.A. gave us a lot as a family and embraced us and our community.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That sense of mutual investment shaped everything that followed. The city\u2019s Iranian diaspora influenced his upbringing and matured his early entrepreneurial instincts. He resold baseball cards, ran improvised gambling games and even ironed dollar bills to make them look new.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His father, Younes Nazarian, eventually struck it big through a\u00a0telecom investment tied to Qualcomm, then shifted into a conservative real estate portfolio. Sam pursued a different path. After college, he built and sold a Nextel\u00a0phone distribution business by age 23, turning $25,000 into $2 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That capital led him\u00a0into\u00a0hospitality. His first major project, transforming the Beverly Carlton Hotel\u00a0into the Avalon, revealed his talent for creating culturally important spaces that resonated. With designer Kelly Wearstler, he crafted a midcentury aesthetic that connected with a new generation of travelers. His follow-up, the Viceroy Santa Monica, targeted creative professionals and helped define, if not invent, the boutique hotel\u00a0category.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2002, he founded SBE<\/a>, a company that would reshape nightlife and hospitality. Nazarian understood something others did not: Hotels, restaurants and nightclubs were not separate businesses. They were parts of a single ecosystem. Control the ecosystem and you control the experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He launched Katsuya with chef Katsuya Uechi, partnered with Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s on the Bazaar and built nightlife venues including Hyde and Shelter that functioned as cultural gatekeepers. He\u00a0acquired\u00a0iconic properties such as The Abbey and Gladstone\u2019s and expanded his SLS hotel\u00a0brand globally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met when I was a first-term councilmember representing Hollywood,\u201d former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti\u00a0tells\u00a0Los Angeles. \u201cSam had an idea what we could do with the most famous neighborhood in the world. Use nightlife to revitalize the\u00a0day\u00a0life.\u00a0Real estate was cheap and Sam\u2019s vision was pretty bold.\u00a0He wanted to put the Hollywood back in Hollywood so you could see stars not only in the sidewalk but also in the clubs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hyde\"HydeHyde Sunset Credit: Courtesy SBE<\/p>\n

Nazarian constantly reinvented his venues, redesigning them before they felt outdated. By SBE\u2019s peak, he\u00a0operated\u00a041 hotels in nine countries and employed thousands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His formula was simple but powerful: Create the sense that something important was always about to happen and ensure people wanted to be in the room when it did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Restructuring\u00a0<\/p>\n

For several years, Nazarian stepped back from\u00a0public\u00a0view. It was not a retreat. It was\u00a0a restructuring. He sold portions of SBE, including a major stake to Accor,\u00a0reportedly walking\u00a0away with just\u00a0shy\u00a0of a billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rather than stepping back, he reinvested. The next phase of his career would be larger, more\u00a0systematic\u00a0and less dependent on personality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

HQ Hotels: Building at Scale\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHQ is a collection of conversion and new-build hotels that\u00a0represents\u00a0the new heart of the city. It is a vibrant, inclusive place where locals and travelers come together for memorable dining,\u00a0nightlife\u00a0and wellness experiences. We have HQ destinations now open in the Caribbean and New Orleans, with the next on the way to Palm Springs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The\"TheThe Monarch\u2019s S Bar in New OrleansCredit: Jacqueline Marque<\/p>\n

\"Hodges\"HodgesHodges Bay Resort & SpaCredit: Courtesy SBE<\/p>\n

That integration is the engine behind HQ Hotels and Residences. Developed with Wyndham, one of the largest hotel\u00a0franchisors in the world, HQ aims to create scalable lifestyle properties that weave together dining, nightlife and technology-driven hospitality into a unified system. Nazarian describes it as moving beyond boutique hotels toward a replicable platform, one where the properties function as urban headquarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Wyndham partnership signals a move from crafting singular spaces to building globally distributed infrastructure. It also introduces\u00a0risk. Scaling lifestyle experiences often\u00a0dilutes\u00a0exclusivity. The question is whether Nazarian can\u00a0maintain\u00a0the energy and desirability that defined his early success while\u00a0operating\u00a0at global volume.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Estate: Wellness Meets Luxury\u00a0<\/p>\n

If HQ is about scale,\u00a0The Estate is about ambition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Estate aims to merge luxury hospitality with preventive healthcare and longevity science. A partner in the project promises what the program describes as \u201ctherapeutic plasma exchange\u201d and a path to extended health through \u201cmitochondrial performance\u201d and \u201cAI-driven preventive medicine.\u201d The concept includes residential living, full-body health assessments\u00a0and partnerships with institutions such as Fountain Life and Clinique La Prairie.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It blends biohacking culture with luxury hospitality. Nazarian is betting that younger generations focused on wellness and performance will embrace the hybrid model.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first Los Angeles\u00a0component\u00a0is expected at Century Plaza, connecting his future ambitions to the city where his career began.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

New Partners, New Gatekeepers\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another shift in Nazarian\u2019s\u00a0second act is his approach to partnerships.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His focus on the Latino luxury market reflects both demographic awareness and strategic positioning. Collaborations with Anthony and Vergara aim to tap into significant and\u00a0largely underserved\u00a0buying power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time, Nazarian is adapting to a new form of cultural gatekeeping. Velvet ropes once controlled access. Now algorithms do. He is incorporating influencers and digital creators into his strategy, recognizing that hospitality today is as much about content and community as physical space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The emphasis has shifted from who enters a room to how a brand connects across platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back in Los Angeles\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite broader\u00a0trends of capital fleeing California, Nazarian is investing heavily in Los Angeles and Palm Springs. He acknowledges the challenges, among\u00a0them\u00a0the decline of Hollywood, but continues to develop new projects in the region, such as Casa Dani and Katsuya at Westfield Century City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Katsuya\"\"Katsuya\"Katsuya\u2019s fun, stylish interiorsCredit: Courtesy SBE<\/p>\n

His family\u2019s philanthropic footprint across the city, from university buildings to cultural institutions, reflects a connection that predates his success and outlasts his ambitions. The debt, he suggests, runs both ways. For Nazarian, Los Angeles is not just a market. It was the proving ground. Now, it is the next stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, he lives in Miami with his wife, Albanian model Emina\u00a0Cunmulaj, and their three children, surrounded by art he began collecting in his 20s. He\u00a0operates\u00a0on East Coast time but returns\u00a0frequently\u00a0to Los Angeles,\u00a0maintaining\u00a0both personal and professional ties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The System and the Spark\u00a0<\/p>\n

Industry insiders describe his current phase not as a comeback but as a strategic\u00a0repositioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The distinction matters. Where he once\u00a0operated\u00a0venues directly, he now designs systems that generate and distribute experiences at scale. The old Nazarian created energy and monetized it. The new Nazarian wants to engineer the conditions that produce that energy and replicate them globally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The central question\u00a0remains\u00a0the same as it was in his first act: Can the vision capture lightning in a bottle once again?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sam\"SamSam Nazarian at the Katsuya Century City barCredit: Yves Bright<\/p>\n

Los Angeles rewards reinvention but is\u00a0a relentless, and at times, a fickle critic. Technology,\u00a0scale\u00a0and capital can build infrastructure, but they cannot guarantee atmosphere. That is something Nazarian appears to understand intentionally. The quality that made Nazarian 1.0 wildly successful was the sense that his venues were must-be places. Yet he\u00a0seems to be\u00a0doing the impossible. He curates and collects brands the way he collects art. He\u00a0operates\u00a0clubs in Los Angeles even as his focus expands globally. He keeps returning to the city that made him because it is where his core principles were forged \u2014 principles that still define the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nazarian seems to have mastered one core principle: It does not matter what you call the room. It matters what happens when people walk into it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And whether his second act succeeds (and no one we spoke with is betting against it) comes down to a single, almost preternatural gift: his ability to translate a guiding principle into a system without losing what made it work in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Architect of What\u2019s Next\u00a0 Sam Nazarian built his first empire on velvet ropes, bottle\u00a0service\u00a0and an instinct for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,125400,125422,125423],"class_list":["post-295172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-may-2026","tag-sam-nazarian","tag-sbe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}