Janu Tokyo opened in 2024. Janu is Aman’ s more playful sibling brand.
Some around him initially questioned his foray into real estate, a business that takes patience and a long view, much different than the volatility of trading commodities.“ They’ d say,‘ You want to get money fast, right?’ But I like it because I’ m deeply involved from the beginning.”
In 2015, he founded OKO Group, a real estate development company based in Miami that focuses on ultra-luxury residential towers, high-end hospitality and class-A commercial office buildings. Key projects include 830 Brickell, in Miami’ s
A penthouse pool terrace at the forthcoming residences at Aman Beverly Hills, slated to open in 2028.
Brickell Financial District and one of the tallest buildings in the city, and Missoni Baia in Edgewater, the first luxury residential project by Italian fashion house Missoni.
CITY LIFE When Doronin acquired Aman, he quickly identified potential for the brand extending beyond resort and out-of-the-way locations.“ I saw what was missing,” as he said. What was absent, he gathered, was a city concept. But for a brand as tethered to its nature environs, translating the concept to an urban locale couldn’ t be simple or turnkey.“ It’ s very difficult to try and keep the same vibe, the same energy, but in a cityscape,” Doronin said. Most Aman resorts are squat, low to the ground. Cities don’ t afford that luxury where buildings are normally constructed to vertiginous heights. One other thing of note he mentioned:“ It costs a lot of money.”
Aman Tokyo, which opened in 2014 and occupies the top six floors of the 38-story Otemachi Tower, is the blueprint. The hotel perpetually is on“ Best of Tokyo Hotels” lists and has rooms featuring deep basalt stone soaking tubs and tatami-inspired elements. Sliding shoji screens reveal views of the Imperial Palace Gardens or Mount Fuji. A Sky Wellness Floor houses a 27,000-square-foot wellness center featuring a 100-foot lap pool.
Doronin’ s magnum opus( up to now, that is) is Aman New York, an ambitious hotel-and-residence property set into the Crown Building on 57th and Fifth Ave., a property acquired in 2015 by a group including Doronin for close to $ 1.8 billion. The hotel opened in 2022. Doronin owns the penthouse, which he paid $ 135 million for.
He refers to Aman New York as the hardest and most expensive project he’ s ever done. In a city as regulated as New York, certain elements that figure verboten in a hotel are not, like the working fireplaces in every one of the 83 suites. The 7,000-squarefoot garden terrace has heated outdoor tiling and a retractable glass partition and ceiling so guests can enjoy the outdoors even in the depths of a New York freeze. Keeping in the secluded spirit of Aman, lattice walls allow guests to spy the city without neighboring eyes peering in. Aman Spa New York spreads over 25,000 square feet, making it one of the largest spaces dedicated to wellbeing in the city. Meantime, membership at the private Aman Club costs $ 200,000 upfront, plus $ 15,000 annually; expensive to be sure, but with nightly room rates starting at $ 3,000, who is in a position to argue?
More city locations are set to follow, including Miami, Beverly Hills, Singapore
34 hotelsmag. com Oct / Nov 2026