Sam Nazarian sees Miami as a city at the highest echelons of real estate, largely due to the in-migration of recent years. But growing pains linger.
“You can’t go backwards. Miami now is one of the most important, if not the most important, cities in the world today, but there are different things that drive this,” said hospitality mogul Nazarian, founder of sbe, whose other holdings include C3 restaurant group.
Nazarian spoke with The Real Deal’s Editor in Chief Stuart Elliott at TRD’s Miami Real Estate Forum 2025 on Wednesday, marking the first panel that kicked off the two-day event at Mana Wynwood. The event followed Zohran Mamadani’s mayoral win in New York on Tuesday.
Generally, Mamdani’s promise to freeze rents on rent-stabilized buildings and increase corporate and income taxes, plus his anti-Israel stance, are expected to prompt another influx of New Yorkers to Miami. Yet, Nazarian –– who said he disagrees with Mamdani’s philosophy and politics, but found that his campaign “hit a chord for the next generation” –– pointed out other factors that drive people’s decisions to leave home and move.
Miami’s infrastructure may not be ready for another growth spurt, he said, citing long-present issues such as traffic and the lack of private schools. The city also is experiencing new restaurant openings, which also “is not easy to scale so quickly,” including to train staff.
Nazarian isn’t worried about New York developers coming in and posing competition for Miami’s long-established names in real estate, including Terra and Related Group. Building in the Magic City isn’t easy, he said.
“It’s not easy to understand the politics of infrastructure … permitting, zoning inspections, contractors,” he said. “It’s not for the faint of heart to be building down here” in South Florida.
Miami’s Tuesday mayoral election is headed to a runoff, and Nazarian praised outgoing Mayor Francis Suarez, adding he’s part of a crop of South Florida politicians who “give you the optimism to get shit done.”
Regardless of whether Mamdani’s win prompts a few more billionaires to move south, “the biggest buyer in South Florida is the Hispanic and Latino market,” he said.
Nazarian’s career has spanned all facets of the industry. In the 1990s, Nazarian started out as a nightlife king in Los Angeles, where he opened his first club at 26, and at one point had 13 nightclubs. As founder of sbe, a hotel and restaurant group based in Beverly Hills, California, Nazarian at one point controlled preeminent brands including Mondrian, Delano, Hyde. He also launched SLS Hotels, opening SLS hotels in Beverly Hills, Miami and Las Vegas.
Nazarian sold his stake in the hotel side of the business in 2020 for $850 million to French firm Accor and at the same time increased his ownership in sbe’s ghost kitchens and C3, owner of Umami Burger.
Aside from restaurants, his most recent ventures are in “wellness and longevity,” as the 50-year-old praised the use of preventative medicine, saying it saved him from a potential brain aneurysm.
In Miami, Nazarian’s HQ Hotels & Residences by sbe will brand Black Salmon, the Boschetti Group and Constellation Group’s planned 35-story, 229-unit condo project at 422 Northeast 29th Street in Miami’s Edgewater. Marc Anthony, whose house in LA Nazarian once bought, is a partner in HQ brands.
“I always knew why I got into nightclubs and restaurants: To have the credibility to operate a lifestyle hotel,” said Nazarian, who launched SLS Hotels in the early 2000s, opening SLS-branded hotels in Beverly Hills, Miami and Las Vegas. “If you are going to be a lifestyle guy, you need to understand the parts that make up the lifestyle. You have to be great at everything.”
