Business

Nazarian bringing his hospitality to Gotham

Hospitality mogul Sam Nazarian, known for his celeb-friendly hotel, restaurant and nightlife venues in Los Angeles, will open his first New York hotel next year, The Post has learned.

SLS Hotel New York, a Philippe Starck-designed property at 444 Park Ave. South, is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2013, Nazarian told The Post.

The 190-room luxury hotel at the corner of 30th Street, in an old office building that’s being renovated and given a five-story topper, is a collaboration with New York developer David Moinian’s Moin Development.

Nazarian is in discussions with chef José Andrés about the hotel’s ground-floor restaurant, and there are plans for a mixology lounge and a rooftop dining/nightlife component, he said.

The hotel is part of Nazarian’s “cautiously very optimistic” expansion plans into New York City, which, he tells The Post, will also include the opening of five NYC Umami Burger restaurants in the next 18 months.

“There will be a very strong foothold in New York for us,” Nazarian says. “A lot of projects, in Manhattan and Brooklyn.”

SLS Hotel New York will open in an area that’s become a hotbed for new hotels. The Gansevoort Park Avenue is one block south, part of a crop of much buzzed-about newcomers on or around 29th Street including the Ace, NoMad, Lola and Eventi hotels.

Nazarian’s SBE firm already has SLS hotels in LA and in Miami’s South Beach. Both have a Bazaar by José Andrés restaurant, with a creative take on tapas and liquid-nitrogen cocktails.

But NYC, which Nazarian, 36, has loved since he attended NYU, could be the top priority.

“We’re under no false impression. [New York] is the big leagues,” Nazarian says. “It’s the most important city in the US.”

Nazarian has looked in Midtown and the Meatpacking District for potential locations of Katsuya and has scouted downtown neighborhoods including SoHo and TriBeCa for hotel sites that could be branded SLS or Redbury.

“There could be two or three SLSs in New York,” Nazarian says.