Hospitality Design - December 2018 - 40

perspectives interview

Marcel Wanders' fantastical design
dresses up a Mondrian Doha penthouse

Bleached walnut and white oak complete the lobby
at the SLS Baha Mar from Avenue Interior Design

Toronto and New York firm Yabu Pushelberg,
located down the street from its sister property,
and Baha Mar by LA-based Avenue Interior
Design in the Bahamas. Upcoming properties
in Cancun, Puerto Madero, Argentina, and
Washington, DC will bear Italian designer Piero
Lissoni's touch. (All are overseen and managed
by sbe's in-house team, Dakota Development,
officially formed in 2015 and led by longtime sbe
leader Joe Faust.)

Power Player

Now part of sbe, the Delano South Beach was one
of Starck's early properties with Ian Schrager

that seamlessly transitioned from dark to light to
red, complete with a curated retail experience,
patisserie, and a show kitchen, all done in
Starck's whimsical Alice in Wonderland look with
tapas to match (foie gras in liquid nitrogen cotton
candy included). "Looking back, I was very naïve
in thinking that it was a lot easier said than done,
and a lot more ambitious," Nazarian muses.
When he opened his nightclubs, they took off
immediately, but nightclubs won't be found
inside the SLS. Around it, yes, with guest access,
but for him, it was more about a true culinary
and beverage experience coupled with elegance
and design. "SLS was such a new medium at

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December 2018 hospitalitydesign.com

that time," he says. "There were one-offs, W
had started, and then Mondrian came and kind
of shook the world, or at least LA, which was a
relatively quiet town; it had nothing on what it
is today. [Beverly Hills] was an interesting place
to start because no one had done what we'd
done on such a level, [especially] with Spanish
food-every square inch of the hotel was an
experience."
SLS properties with a Bazaar followed in
South Beach, Las Vegas, and most recently
Miami's Brickell neighborhood, as did two of
the first SLS properties without Starck's hand
(or a Bazaar for that matter): the Lux Brickell by

Eighteen SLS properties-what Nazarian
thinks is his fastest growing hotel brand-are
in the works, including in Downtown LA (the
tallest building in the area), Chicago, Dubai, and
Atlanta, with most of them featuring a branded
residential component. In fact, the company has
already delivered $2 billion in residential sales
between SLS and Hyde.
"I never expected it to be on the same level
as Rosewood, Ritz-Carlton, or Four Seasons
Residences, where people want to buy and live
there." He points to SLS Lux Brickell, standing
at 57 stories tall with 450 residences and 84
guestrooms, as a property that embodies the
essence of what he wants SLS to be. "People
would ask, 'What is SLS? Is it Vegas, South
Beach, or Beverly Hills?' But then we delivered
Lux, and people just got it."
Because despite its success, getting the
brand to where it is today took time. "We're all
going to make mistakes, like buying a casino [in
Las Vegas] right before the recession. I was 29
and the model was correct. But I was trying to
appease some of my investors too much by not
holding to the integrity of the original idea. I
have a lot more confidence now, but at the time I
was one guy and it was a big fee and a big private
equity group. It was a mistake. After that, there
was a lot more catching up to do."
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