Sam Nazarian

[Lev7]

The Iranian born Hollywood mogul is claimed a lot of times to be Jewish, but the guy looks too Armenian and no Jew is named "Nazarian", anyone know anything about this guy?

 

http://i.cnn.net/money/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/19/8402362/nazarian.03.jpg

[MosJan]

1. Tulia (2008) (pre-production) (executive producer)

2. College (2007) (filming) (executive producer)

3. Last Resort (2007) (post-production) (executive producer)

4. Mr. Brooks (2007) (completed) (executive producer)

 

5. Pride (2007) (executive producer)

6. The Last Time (2006) (executive producer)

7. Five Fingers (2006) (executive producer)

8. Down in the Valley (2005) (executive producer)

9. Waiting... (2005) (executive producer)

10. Trespassing (2004) (executive producer)

... aka Evil Remains (USA)

11. The Beautiful Country (2004) (executive producer)

12. Home of Phobia (2004) (executive producer)

... aka Freshman Orientation (USA: new title)

 

Self:

 

1. 20 Hippest Hot Spots (2005) (TV) .... Himself

[MosJan]

HOllywood Hills Entrepreneur Sam Nazarian

 

 

Thursday, April 28, 2005 11:35 PM PDT

 

 

 

 

 

Interview by Caroline Ryder

 

Entrepreneur Sam Nazarian may be just 29, but his Midas touch is already more finely tuned than most. Since launching his first business aged just 20, Nazarian has created some of SoCal's trendiest hang-outs, including the clubs Shelter and Prey, Yu Restaurant & Lounge in Santa Monica, the Viceroy hotels in Santa Monica and Palm Springs. In a move that will "profoundly affect Southern California's social scene", Nazarian's SBE Entertainment Group recently announced an exclusive contract with acclaimed designer Philippe Starck to develop a host of new entertainment destinations in the area. But he isn't just about the bottom line n Nazarian believes in giving back too, and is a supporter of the newly formed Society of Young Philanthropists, which aims to inspire local youth to contribute to society. We met with Nazarian at his sumptuous home (formerly owned by J Lo) in the Hollywood Hills.

 

How do you balance all your different interests?

 

Good question! I work 16 hours a day, six or seven days a week. Every company I started has its own president COO, CFO and we've just got to manage their growth. I also have a great team around me.

 

What's the most valuable lesson that you've learned about business?

 

Having a good team. I think that it's important. And being authentic to every project that you do, as in understanding the marketing, the demographic and really picking a niche in every project, whether it's a new film, the location of a club, a hotel or real estate. Whatever it is, if you're making a movie or building a building, it's the same thing. You need a great foundation. And really having the infrastructure around you and team members who have 20/30 years experience in their field. Letting people flourish without hindering their ability to perform in their field.

 

You're very young to have achieved this kind of success: have you found your youth has been a help or a hindrance as a businessman?

 

It can be a hindrance when people first meet you. But I think pretty quick, they realize that we have a great vision. Youth can be a benefit, an added value, because many people want to be around a growing company, one where everything hasn't been set in stone. They can be part of something from the ground up. I started real young, so in many cases people don't believe my age. Ultimately when people get to know me, they realize that there is a lot more depth to me than is reflected by just my years.

 

Were you always older than your years?

 

Yes. Being youngest of four, I always wanted to be independent and I tended to put myself around a lot of older people. I was always in love with business when I was young. When I was 13 I used to lie to people and say I was 16 and 17. When it was spring break and winter vacation, I would work in delis. I just loved the thrill of working. That's what got me excited. When my friends were going off to summer camp, I was cleaning the floors of my father's factory. I loved it. I just loved getting the check. I always wanted to do it on my own so I never really got an allowance. I was always involved in some hustle.

 

The nightclub scene is incredibly fickle n how do you stay ahead of the game?

 

A city like New York lends itself to having a lot of clubs because it's geared towards a downtown. LA is different because it's a mixture of communities, from the beach to Hollywood and Downtown. The zoning means that every community has a center, surrounded by residential areas. So there isn't one driving area of force in Los Angeles, apart from maybe the Sunset Strip or Ocean Avenue. But LA doesn't have a Soho or meatpacking district or a Chelsea. A lot of people come here and have a concept they think will work, but they soon realize it doesn't. Things like the outdoors component, valet, and an understanding of the strict licensing laws are important. On Sunset Strip there are only two nightclubs that have dance licenses. The reason those licensing laws are so tough is because the homeowner communities here are very powerful compared to New York or London. For the most part, life in LA is not geared towards mixed use society. We pretty much control all of West Hollywood's and the Strip's dance licenses, most of which were grandfathered in. We've marked off that territory. So now, every new club or promoter has to go deep in to Hollywood.

 

So we're living in a party-pooper kind of town?

 

You'll have to ask the community about that. The dance license or liquor licenses mean there's going to be dancing and noise up until 2am. By controlling the number of licenses that are granted, the residents are controlling their sanity. For instance, we have the only liquor license on Montana. And there will never be another one. We are the only ones that can serve vodka.

 

Is there a consortium of nightclub owners who are looking to have the 2am close abolished in LA?

 

We have tried making some in roads, but have got a lot of resistance back. Nightclub owners are always perceived as not being very high on the rung, so they generally don't think they have any political influence. But when I think about how much more tax revenue the state would collect just by extending opening hours from 2 to 4am…And the young, the people who want the change, don't really get involved in actually fighting for these things. We met with Governor Schwarzenegger and he said he'll see…but that all he could say.

 

Do you see the laws changing any time soon?

 

I don't see any momentum in that right now.

 

So what's your long-term vision?

 

By the end of '06, and in early 07, our aim is to have re-landscaped LA. We're working with Philippe Starck, making new investments in creating nightclubs, nightclubs with a food component, very high end restaurants and hotels so we're pretty much hitting all angles of what people want to experience. The components of that vision are service, design, sophistication, world class chefs, customer tracking and follow up. The ability to track your habits when you go to our sushi place on Ocean versus our steak place on Sunset. Where you like to sit, and so on. Following your habits through an ID number, like what happens in Vegas. When you go to Vegas they know what you drink, how much you gamble, which room you like to stay in, what liquor you like…something that has never been done before here.

 

Let's talk about the Young Philanthropists n you recently made a $10,000 donation to them. How long have you been involved with the charity?

 

One of the Young Philanthropists' founders is a very good friend of mine. He came into my office a while back and told me his vision. What got me excited was that it's a way of getting our generation involved. He's trying to regenerate a movement within successful kids aged between 21 and 35 who are usually more focused on work, relationships and what they wear, rather than giving. They have a current message of "let's help, let's just give back, it's cool to give back… don't wait until you re 40, 50, 60 years old to do it!" I love being able to support that kind of movement as opposed to giving to just one cause. We figure if people are going to start giving when they are 40, 50 and so on, think what a difference it would make if they started giving 20 or 30 years earlier.

 

For more information on The Society of Young Philanthropists visit the website: www.philanthropysociety.org.

[MosJan]

Investor Sam Nazarian Contracts with Philippe Starck

to Design Miami's Ritz Plaza Hotel

By Douglas Hanks III, The Miami Herald

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

 

Dec. 10, 2004 - Celebrity designer Philippe Starck's surreal interiors still define the Delano, South Beach's most famous hotel. Nearly a decade later, Starck is returning to South Beach to design another hotel -- across the street from his original creation.

 

The new owners of the Ritz Plaza hotel have signed Starck as their designer, his first South Florida hotel commission since the Delano, whose 1995 opening launched the minimalist aesthetic that remains the South Beach standard.

 

Ritz Plaza's owners say Starck plans an updated version of his take on the style South Beach needs -- one that's warmer than the Delano's famed white-on-white look.

 

"I don't think we're going to go for -- to use the pun -- as 'stark' a design," said Paul Makarechian, one of the developers. "It will have a little bit more of a connection with old Europe. It won't be as modern, I guess is a way of saying it."

 

During a brief interview last week, Starck sniffed at the notion of comparing his new project to the Delano. But with the two oceanfront properties standing 20 paces apart at 17th Street and Collins Avenue, competition seems inevitable.

 

And the new owners are seeking the same kind of hip star power that fuels the Delano. Their main investor, Sam Nazarian, is a 29-year nightclub owner and movie producer from Los Angeles who recently paid $12.5 million for Jennifer Lopez's Beverly Hills mansion.

 

And he seems willing to take on Ian Schrager, the iconic hotelier who hired Starck for the Delano and a number of his other hotels.

 

"You look at the Delano -- it was built 10 years ago and a penny hasn't been spent since," Nazarian said. Turning to another Ian Schrager hotel not designed by Starck, Nazarian added: "The Shore Club -- I'll let you be the judge of what that is."

 

Schrager did not respond to an e-mail asking for comment on Starck's latest venture, and a publicist also declined to reply to an interview request this week.

 

Starck, a 55-year-old French designer, has only been linked with one South Florida project since the Delano -- the Related Group's new South Beach condominium tower, Icon.

 

In between, he has emerged as one of the country's most famous designers, largely for the line of household goods he created for Target.

 

Schrager made Starck sign a noncompete contract that would have barred the designer from working in South Beach, but that agreement expired in recent years, according to Nazarian, who said he has hired Starck to design seven L.A. restaurants for him.

 

At the Delano, Starck created a mix of whimsy (a giant purple settee couch sits on the far wall of the hotel's lobby) and sterility (the rooms have white walls, white floors, white beds, white chairs and white TVs).

 

Its 1995 opening drew a six-page spread in Vanity Fair and prompted Herald writers to describe the hotel's look as both "urgent chic" and "chromatic cold turkey."

 

At Icon's debut party Friday, Starck told The Herald that the Ritz Plaza will not resemble what he created at the Delano.

 

"It will be completely different. Because it's 20 years later," he said, inadvertently aging the Delano by a decade.

 

The new owners of the 1940 hotel have filed preliminary drawings with Miami Beach's Historic Preservation Board, and some bear the stamp of Starck's design firm. But they seem to offer only fleeting hints of what he might have in mind for his South Beach sequel.

 

A pool deck features a three-story mirror towering over a teak deck, the patios draped in ivy. The lobby would have fireplaces and wood paneling and metal railings. A marble-topped table accents one room's entry way.

 

But the drawings do not say whether these were Starck creations or just placeholders until he puts his stamp on the plans. The developers are coy about describing too much.

 

"We want to surprise everybody," Nazarian said, before returning to the development group's refrain. "It's going to be a complete night-and-day difference with what he did with the Delano."

 

The owners bought the 132-room 1940 hotel this summer from Ignacio Contreras and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Starwood hoped to build a W hotel there but was blocked by the Delano, which sued over the shadow the hotel's seven-story tower would cast.

 

Makarechian's group plans a five-story "residence club" between the existing hotel building and the ocean, with 23 time-share units selling in three-month intervals.

 

No prices have been announced, but the resort -- to be run by boutique-operator Kimpton Hotels, the new operator of Coconut Grove's Mayfair hotel -- would open in early 2006 after extensive renovations.

 

It has been closed since the new owners bought it; Nazarian said the price was close to $30 million, with development costs expected to run about $70 million.

 

Makarechian's development company, the Newport Beach, Calif.-based Makar Properties, also owns the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in California. Nazarian said his father, Younes, helped found Qualcomm, the $2 billion-a-year chip maker, launching his son on a successful real-estate career. The younger Nazarian's holding company owns 83 percent stake in the Ritz Plaza project, according to documents on file with Miami Beach.

 

Nazarian said the Ritz Plaza planned to lead South Beach in luxury service -- including Rolls Royce pick-ups from the airport. But he said he wants the Ritz Plaza to come in with rates just below the Delano, where a peak-season room is running between $400 and $900 a night.

 

During his brief interview amid the throngs of Icon guests wanting to meet him -- one middle-aged woman stared and said: You're so cool -- Starck said he did not have time to detail his plans for the Ritz Plaza. But he rejected the idea that the public would hold his new hotel up to his most famous one.

 

"People can say what they want," he said. "But we don't need to compare

[MosJan]

also see

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=17270

 

i don;t know if it's the same person

but in many Blogs - Armenians and azeris are fighting over is Nazarian is or not Armenian - so take your time and search

[MosJan]

Younes & Soraya Nazarian ?

are also names that i have found that have gave donations left and right

 

[MosJan]

http://www.newsbull.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11256

[Armenak]

Perhaps he's a Persian Jew who adopted an Armenian surnames to avoid persecution? Just conjecture.

[nairi]

Who cares?

[Arpa]

Who cares?

Who cares indeed.

This subject has been discussed to the ground on many occasions.

Even though 90% Arenians may have surnames ending in -ian, it is not limited to Armenians. Many Persians and even Indians have surnames ending in -ian. Conduct a search using a moslem name adding -ian to it.

Heres is what I found using "hasanian", obviously not a Christian Armenian;

======

Vienna real estate directoryVirginia market newsVirginia homes for sale Real Estate in Vienna:

Mohammed A Hasanian

This website is not affiliated in any way with Mohammed A Hasanian. Please use the links below to find additional information about any particular agent or broker.

 

[Zartonk]

Heres is what I found using "hasanian", obviously not a Christian Armenian;

 

There are Armenians in the more remote corners of Iran that adopt Muslim in this manner. Some don't even have -ian any longer. I myself know a Hatemian, and a Mahmudi.

[irlandahay]

well, who cares if hes armenian or not?

 

if he does end up being an armenian...why should we be proud of him? because he denys it and says hes jewish? or because he makes butloads of money without giving a dime back to his starving brothers and sisters in gyumri and so on?

 

but then again thats just me and my waky opinions...right?

[phantom22]

Armenak,

 

Yours is the most probable answer. Many Persian Jews took Armenian surnames because Armenians were less discriminated against in Iran. Or perhaps some Iranian-Armenian named Nazarian married a Jewish woman some generations ago and the children were raised as Jews. Given Nazarian's very Armenian looks, this possibility should also be considered.

 

 

Perhaps he's a Persian Jew who adopted an Armenian surnames to avoid persecution? Just conjecture.

 

[Arpa]

Phantom/phaexton, whatever the phaex your name is, phantom pain in my my ph*ass. My only wish is that you, once and for all phantomise,, turn into a “phantom”, disappear in that world of phantomsy of yours, and stop polluting this site with your phaeces, stop your MIND-BENDING turkottoman trash on a naively unsuspecting young readership .

Has anyone heard of the saying; “When in Rome do as the Romans do”?

See if you can guess who this man with a 110% Italian name is. .Did he choose that name to hide his ethnicity? How could he hide it with chosen profession?

Umberto Cassuto, (1883 - 1951), was a rabbi and biblical scholar born in Florence, Italy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Cassuto

You are so full of it that your eyes are turning brown.

Armenak,

Yours is the most probable answer. Many Persian Jews took Armenian surnames because Armenians were less discriminated against in Iran. Or perhaps some Iranian-Armenian named Nazarian married a Jewish woman some generations ago and the children were raised as Jews. Given Nazarian's very Armenian looks, this possibility should also be considered.

Why don’t you confess, that your nolej of Armani-ian kltr, your knowledge/ignorance of "Armenian culture' is Nekst to Nil, based on that all time disgustingly turkarmeno ditty, pearl of our culture “Soud e soud e”, that your Nolej of Armenian kulchur is Nekst to Nil.

Your “scholarship” is so full of matzo balls enough to fill “seventy septic systems“.

You mean to say that Rima, the unabashed and proud chairwoman of the Jewish community of Yerevan chose her surname to hide her ethnicity? Who stopped her from adoptin g a name like Rima Israeli/Levy?

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do”? “When in Armenia, do as the Armenians do”?

http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/pr_0...ws_comm_vo.html

Minister Oskanian met with the leadership of the Jewish community in Armenia, on December 21. which numbers nearly 5,000. Rabbi Meir Burstein, Mrs. Rima Varjabedian, Dr. Vladimir Gogan, as well as the heads of the cultural center, and editors of community publications responded to the Minister?s invitation

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...20359-1,00.html

"The two businessmen, both multimillionaires, were Habib Elghanian, a plastics manufacturer and the first Jew to be condemned, and Rahim Ali Khorram, a Muslim who owned a string of gambling casinos and bordellos. Elghanian,who was convicted of spying for Israel, was said to have made huge investments in Israel and to have solicited funds for the Israeli army, which the prosecution claimed made him an accomplice "in murderous air raids against innocent Palestinians." Witnesses against Khorram charged that he supplied prostitutes for the Shah's officials, once fed a man to a lion in his amusement park, and kept a secret morgue for the bodies of his enemies.

The conviction of Elghanian caused concern among some Jewish businessmen in Iran, who feared that they too could be charged with contributing money to Israel. But most Jews did not believe that their community, which now numbers about 65,000, was being targeted for abuse. Muslim leaders, including Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, have repeatedly stressed that the rights of religious minorities would be protected. "We are uneasy," conceded a Jewish intellectual in Tehran, "but there is no room for panic." And a Jewish university student noted that former Premier Amir Abbas Hoveida, who was executed last month, was also accused of espionage for Israel—"and he was not"

Edited April 9, 2007 by Arpa

[Lev7]

Phantom/phaexton, whatever the phaex your name is, phantom pain in my my ph*ass. My only wish is that you, once and for all phantomise,, turn into a “phantom”, disappear in that world of phantomsy of yours, and stop polluting this site with your phaeces, stop your MIND-BENDING turkottoman trash on a naively unsuspecting young readership .

Has anyone heard of the saying; “When in Rome do as the Romans do”?

See if you can guess who this man with a 110% Italian name is. .Did he choose that name to hide his ethnicity? How could he hide it with chosen profession?

Umberto Cassuto, (1883 - 1951), was a rabbi and biblical scholar born in Florence, Italy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Cassuto

You are so full of it that your eyes are turning brown.

 

Why don’t you confess, that your nolej of Armani-ian kltr, your knowledge/ignorance of "Armenian culture' is Nekst to Nil, based on that all time disgustingly turkarmeno ditty, pearl of our culture “Soud e soud e”, that your Nolej of Armenian kulchur is Nekst to Nil.

Your “scholarship” is so full of matzo balls enough to fill “seventy septic systems“.

You mean to say that Rima, the unabashed and proud chairwoman of the Jewish community of Yerevan chose her surname to hide her ethnicity? Who stopped her from adoptin g a name like Rima Israeli/Levy?

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do”? “When in Armenia, do as the Armenians do”?

http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/pr_0...ws_comm_vo.html

Minister Oskanian met with the leadership of the Jewish community in Armenia, on December 21. which numbers nearly 5,000. Rabbi Meir Burstein, Mrs. Rima Varjabedian, Dr. Vladimir Gogan, as well as the heads of the cultural center, and editors of community publications responded to the Minister?s invitation

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...20359-1,00.html

"The two businessmen, both multimillionaires, were Habib Elghanian, a plastics manufacturer and the first Jew to be condemned, and Rahim Ali Khorram, a Muslim who owned a string of gambling casinos and bordellos. Elghanian,who was convicted of spying for Israel, was said to have made huge investments in Israel and to have solicited funds for the Israeli army, which the prosecution claimed made him an accomplice "in murderous air raids against innocent Palestinians." Witnesses against Khorram charged that he supplied prostitutes for the Shah's officials, once fed a man to a lion in his amusement park, and kept a secret morgue for the bodies of his enemies.

The conviction of Elghanian caused concern among some Jewish businessmen in Iran, who feared that they too could be charged with contributing money to Israel. But most Jews did not believe that their community, which now numbers about 65,000, was being targeted for abuse. Muslim leaders, including Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, have repeatedly stressed that the rights of religious minorities would be protected. "We are uneasy," conceded a Jewish intellectual in Tehran, "but there is no room for panic." And a Jewish university student noted that former Premier Amir Abbas Hoveida, who was executed last month, was also accused of espionage for Israel—"and he was not"

 

those c*** smokers are using Armenian surnames and end up creating a bad image of Armenians, in countries which treat us with respect

Edited April 9, 2007 by Zartonk