Nightclubs, restaurants and hotels, including the plans just announced this week to acquire Morgans Hotel Group in a deal worth $794M, are the lifeblood of Sam Nazarian's SBE Entertainment Group. Sam described SBE Entertainment Group as a “fully integrated operating platform.”
Sam, who founded the company in 2003, was a much-anticipated keynote speaker at the Bisnow Lodging and Innovation Series recently held at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown LA.
The strategy—"as long as we find the right partners, as long as we find the right opportunities—is building these fully integrated communities,” he said. It's a strategy he expects to continue in the future, as well as continuing "to stay nimble."
His company has created more than 30 brands from scratch to date, according to Sam.
He said "there is no kind of secret sauce to what we do other than the fact that we are a one-stop solution for most developers."
Early on, he said SBE had to find "creative financing solutions" like EB-5.
The company is now expanding internationally, including Argentina, Mexico, Dubai and Qatar.
There also are plans to open a restaurant this year in Cairo, Egypt, and a hotel in the Bahamas will, hopefully, open soon, Sam said.
SBE Entertainment has launched a new brand of hotels, the Hyde Hotels, which Sam described as an "edgy younger sister" of SLS Hotels, his brainchild.
The company also owns Katsuya Restaurants and plans to open nine more this year. His Umami Burgers has more than 35 locations with plans to partner with a Japanese chef who wants to open 10 in Japan, he said.
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The talk of international growth extended to a panel at the event that focused on the future of luxury international travel.
The panelists included Hilton Worldwide's global head of luxury and lifestyle brands John Vanderslice; Club Med CEO Xavier Mufraggi; Chartres Lodging Group president Maki Bara, and Lockton Insurance's China - US business team leader Claudia Margolis, who moderated.
The panel discussed growth in hospitality and how the luxury market is about "unique experiences."
Xavier said Club Med tries to get its patrons to relax while on vacation and not use their technology. He said he would like to see a Club Med in Hawaii.
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John said no one is better at having great locations than Hilton.
While Hilton has seen huge investment out of China, John said in luxury, there also has been investment out of the Middle East.
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Maki (above) said her company has been approached by Chinese investors who want to build resorts in China but want a US-based management company to "import US management styles and philosophies" in China.
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Speed networking was also on the agenda at the event.
Some of the 500 attendees chose to gather for nearly 45 minutes to meet new people and find out about other companies.
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