Sam Nazarian: Building the Next Era of Luxury Hospitality

Luxury is being redefined around how long, and how well, we live. Few leaders are shaping that shift as decisively as Sam Nazarian, founder, chairman and CEO of sbe Entertainment Group. Through The Estate, the luxury longevity hospitality platform he co-founded with Tony Robbins, and his smart lifestyle brand, HQ Hotels & Residences. Ahead of his conversation with International Luxury Hotel Association co-founder Jonathan Edelheit at INSPIRE on December 16, we explore how Sam turns a concept into a category, and what hoteliers, owners and developers can learn from his approach to longevity.

From sbe to The Estate

Sam founded sbe in 2002 around a simple observation: the industry treated hotels, restaurants, bars and residences as separate businesses, when to him they were one experience. “They were different rooms in the same house,” he says. That idea, from the launch of SLS Hotels in 2006 and brands such as Mondrian, Delano and Katsuya, built a global portfolio and helped define the lifestyle hospitality category.

His next chapter applies the same instinct to luxury. Where sbe’s first act was built on energy and access, The Estate and HQ are built around wellness, longevity and addressing how people want to live today.

Two Brands, One Philosophy

Both brands grow from Sam’s belief that hospitality, lifestyle and wellness are converging into a new way of living, but they serve different guests.

The Estate is positioned as the first luxury hospitality platform to bring longevity science into a real estate ecosystem of resorts, residences and members-only longevity clubs. Guests, residents and members have access to advanced diagnostics, personalized health tracking and precision wellness programs through the brand’s global partners, and every residence is designed around longevity. Kenneth Ryan, appointed as the first Chief Longevity Officer in luxury hospitality, leads that programming work across the portfolio. Together, residences and urban longevity clubs allow The Estate to extend the guest relationship well beyond a single stay. It creates a global ecosystem that people join for years.

HQ Hotels & Residences brings wellness, culinary, entertainment and community together in a more attainable lifestyle offer for a younger generation. HQ gives owners a fast, capital-efficient route to a brand with real culinary and cultural weight.

Longevity Is the New Luxury

For Sam, the definition of luxury itself is changing. A decade ago it meant access: the right table, the right club, the right address. Those markers still matter, but today’s luxury traveler is asking a more personal question. “What is actually going to improve my life?” he says. Living longer and feeling better, and having the tools to do both, are becoming the ultimate luxuries.

The foundations of longevity are also becoming better understood: clean air, clean water, healthier materials and spaces that support sleep and recovery. Many of the guests Sam’s teams speak with already work with functional doctors and use the latest biohacking protocols, and they expect their hotel or home to keep pace. He believes these offerings will soon be a baseline expectation in luxury rather than a point of difference.

The Estate sits firmly at the top of the market, with ADRs of $1,000 and above, residences in its pipeline from $5 million to $20 million, and longevity club memberships from $25,000 to $100,000 a year, depending on the market.

Lessons for Owners and Developers

Sam’s message to developers is direct: the luxury buyer has already decided how they want to live, so the real question is not whether wellness is worth the investment, but whether a building meets that standard. Wellness can no longer be an amenity added at the end. It needs to be part of design and construction from the start.

He is equally clear on branded residences. A brand should be an operating philosophy, not a logo license, shaping how a building runs and how residents experience it every day. Hardware alone does not set a project apart, he notes, since anyone can build another beautiful pool or lobby. Culture and point of view are far harder to replicate.

That is also why Sam works with development partners that share the vision. Developing together means the brand is embedded from day one, and the thousands of small decisions that shape the experience all work toward the same experience and vision.

The Power of Partnerships

Sam’s partners are part of how the experience is built, not simply names on a building. The Estate was co-founded with Tony Robbins, and Marc Anthony is an equity partner in sbe and an owner of HQ, bringing a deep connection to culture, entertainment and the global Latin audience. At HQ Residences Miami, Marc’s speakeasy-style lounge, Marc’s, and Sofía Vergara’s TOMA will be part of residents’ daily lives. For Sam, the test of any partnership is whether it adds something meaningful to the experience.

How Sam Builds

Across more than two decades, Sam’s businesses have followed the same model: “See an opportunity. Fill a void. Get it to scale.” He looks for where the consumer is going next, and today that means health and longevity alongside great food, culture and connection.

A few principles guide how he turns a concept into a business:

• Conviction over consensus. Some of his best decisions lacked universal agreement at the time, and waiting for everyone to agree often means missing the window.
• Connective tissue over assets. “A hotel by itself is a commodity,” he says. Connected to culinary talent, design and a cultural point of view, it becomes a destination.
• Capital discipline and creative ambition as one job. The most durable creative ideas sit on a structure built to last.
• Legacy over velocity. The brands worth building are the ones that genuinely improve people’s lives.

That thinking now shapes The Estate’s global pipeline across ten countries worldwide. Rather than repeating the same building in different cities, the focus is on whether each project strengthens the brand for the long term.

Sam Nazarian joins Jonathan Edelheit on the Summit Stage at INSPIRE, the International Luxury Hotel Association’s flagship North American luxury hotel conference, on December 16 at JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa for “Longevity: The Next Frontier of Luxury,” which opens the second day of the conference. Kenneth Ryan, Chief Longevity Officer of The Estate, joins the Medical Wellness as the New Luxury Differentiator panel on December 15. Learn more at ilha.org/inspire.