Nobu Hospitality LLC, the group founded by Robert De Niro, chef Nobu Matsuhisa, and movie producer Meir Teper, has slowly crossed much of the world, one sushi restaurant or luxury hotel at a time.
Now the group reportedly expects to reach $1 billion in revenue in the next five years as it adds another venture to its roster: condos.
The first Nobu condos are due to be built in Toronto, on top of the city’s existing Nobu restaurant. They will comprise 660 units and 36 luxury-hotel suites. The group hopes to complete the project in 30 months. All of the units have already been sold—they sold out within three months of the project’s announcement last year.
Trevor Horwell, CEO of Nobu Hospitality, told Bloomberg that the project might cost as much as C$300 million ($231 million) to complete. The units average C$850,000 ($654,000), and the hotel rooms are expected to cost C$800 ($615) a night.
Following Toronto, the group has plans in place for two more mixed-use developments in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Los Cabos, Mexico. Bloomberg reports that it is also seeking out other opportunities in Asia, with the aim of establishing ten such developments in the next ten years. This is in addition to a target of five new hotels and restaurants per year. But the global domination doesn’t end there: the group eventually hopes to build a resort as well, with its eyes reportedly set on Bermuda.
The company’s planned growth is quite rapid. It started with one sushi restaurant in New York in 1994, and has since expanded to 40 locations. The first Nobu Hotel opened within Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas in 2013, and since then the group has opened seven additional properties, with eight others in development.
