Sam Nazarian
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| Sam Nazarian سام نظریان |
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| Born | 1975 Tehran, Iran |
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| Occupation | Founder and CEO, SBE Entertainment Group |
Sam Nazarian (Persian: سام نظریان , born 1975 in Tehran, Iran) is an American entrepreneur. Nazarian is the Chief Executive Officer of the SBE Entertainment Group, which includes SBE HotelGroup, Samy Boy Supper Clubs, and 3Wall Development. As a film producer, real estate financier, hotelier, and restaurateur, Nazarian has produced numerous major motion picture releases and owns several of Southern California's trendiest nightclubs, hotels, and restaurants.[1] In 2006, Nazarian was named one of the “Top 100 Most Powerful People in Southern California” by West, the Los Angeles Times’ Magazine and was named among “The Influentials” in Los Angeles magazine.[2]
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[edit] Early life
Born in Tehran, Iran to Persian Jews[3][4] In order to keep his clubs profitable and popular, Nazarian renovates and renames the clubs every 8 months to a year at the expense of several hundred thousand to a million dollars, what Nazarian refers to as "refreshing the brand".[5] Nazarian's Privilege was previously named Shelter, Hyde was North, and Area was the immensely popular Prey.[1] Nazarian's strategies have been criticized as too risky, but Nazarian's nightclubs continue to see a high level of popularity and celebrity patronage, as well as being frequently visited by the characters of HBO's Entourage.[5] Nazarian made an appearance as himself greeting the main characters of the show in the episode "No Cannes Do".
[edit] Restaurants
Nazarian's SBE Restaurant Group opened Katsuya in Brentwood, California, a high-end sushi restaurant featuring a menu designed by master sushi chef Katsuya Uechi and was designed by designer Philippe Starck. Nazarian also owns the popular Abbey, voted “Best Bar of Los Angeles” and “Best Gay Bar” in both Zagat Guide and AOL CityGuide in 2005.
[edit] Hotels
As part of his SBE Hotel Group, Nazarian numerous properties such as the Ritz Plaza in Miami’s South Beach, due to re-open in mid-2008 with a Starck design, the Le Meridien in Beverly Hills, which will be redesigned and debut in early 2008 as the first property in SBE’s new luxury hotel brand, SLS Hotels. In March 2007, Nazarian’s SBE Entertainment Group announced that it, in partnership with Stockbridge Real Estate Funds, reached an agreement with Gordon Gaming to acquire Las Vegas’ renowned Sahara Hotel & Casino.[2]
Nazarian has also invested in several other hotels, such as Viceroy hotels and resorts; Chamberlain West Hollywood; Sheraton Delfina Santa Monica; Sheraton Gateway LAX, and Hilton Garden Inns in resort locales in Southern California and Florida.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Ryder, Caroline. "Hollywood Hills Entrepreneur Sam Nazarian", Westside Today, April 28, 2005.
- ^ a b c Wharton Biography of Sam Nazarian
- ^ http://www.jewishjournal.com/iranianamericanjews/2007/02/having-found-success-in-us-iranian-jews.html
- ^ , Nazarian's parents immigrated to the United States after the Iranian Revolution. Son of Qualcomm co-founder Younes "David" Nazarian, Sam was raised in Los Angeles, California. Sam studied at New York University and the University of Southern California. Nazarian dropped out of college to establish Platinum Wireless, a telecommunications business specializing in the distribution of Nextel software. Within one year of its founding, Platinum Wireless was the number one Nextel distributor in Southern California.<ref></ref> Nazarian then entered the world of real estate by diversifying his family’s assets into real estate holdings, beginning with the establishment of 3Wall Development in 1999. Under Sam's guidance 3Wall quickly became one of Southern California’s largest owners of multi-family housing.<ref></ref>
[edit] Producer
Chief Executive Officer of Element Films, Nazarian has served as an executive producer for the 2005 comedy Waiting..., 2005's Down in the Valley, 2006's Five Fingers and The Last Time, and 2007's Pride and Mr. Brooks.
[edit] Hospitality
[edit] Nightclubs
Sam is the sole owner of three of Los Angeles's most popular nightclubs: Area, Privilege, and Hyde. Rather than seek investors for each nightclub, as is normal procedure for high-end nightclubs (which also tend to be high risk), Nazarian owns each club outright.<ref>{{Cite news|first=James|last=Verini|title=SMALL HOURS; Enjoy his clubs while you can; Sam Nazarian keeps his many places trendy by constantly reinventing them|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=July 29, 2006|page=E1}}</li> <li id="cite_note-smallhours">'''[[#cite_ref-smallhours_1|^]]''' <strong class="error">Cite error: Invalid <code><ref></code> tag;
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