John Ruiz sells waterfront Gables Estates teardown for nearly $28M

Prominent trial attorney and University of Miami Hurricanes booster John Ruiz’s Coral Gables Monopoly board shifted yet again. 

Ruiz sold a waterfront teardown in Gables Estates for $27.5 million, just six months after purchasing the property for $22 million. The buyer is the Quevedo family, which sold its University Health Care company to Cano Health in 2021 for $540 million in cash and $60 million in equity. 

Property records show Ruiz’s 550 Arvida Parkway Holdings sold the 6,300-square-foot, five-bedroom house at that address to QMS 550 Arvida LLC, which is managed by Margarita and Michael Quevedo. Michael Quevedo was president of University Health Care, and Margarita, known as Maggie, co-founded the company. 

Ruiz sold the property for 25 percent more than he paid in October. At that time, Ruiz bought the house from Leon Medical Centers founder Benjamin Leon Jr.

The Coral Gables house hit the market in January for $28.9 million with Alex Pirez and Diana Gutierrez of Mocca Realty. Pete Riveiro of The Firm Realty Group represented the buyer. 

The roughly 1-acre property comes with plans for a new estate designed by architect Cesar Molina, according to the listing. The existing home was built in 1971 and expanded in 2003. Riveiro, who declined to comment on the buyer’s identity, said that the buyer plans to build the  11,500-square-foot Molina-designed estate. The mansion will span about 15,000 square feet including terraces. 

Demolition is expected to begin in the next two to three months, Riveiro said. 

In January, Ruiz also sold the mansion next door at 530 Arvida Parkway for $30 million to a hidden buyer. He paid $25 million for that house in 2021. That year Ruiz sold the teardown at 80 Leucadendra Drive for $13.8 million, also in Gables Estates. 

Three years ago, Ruiz paid $49 million for Leon’s 2.2-acre tropical resort-style mansion at 620 and 630 Arvida Parkway, where Ruiz lives. At the time it was the second-highest single-family home sale in Miami-Dade County.

Ruiz owns Coral Gables-based MSP Recovery and MSP Recovery Law Firm, which recover Medicare and Medicaid health care payments for insurance providers and other companies that paid for services they should not have. MSP Recovery merged with Lionheart Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company led by developer Ophir Sternberg, in 2021, and is now called LifeWallet. 

LifeWallet disclosed in March that it had discovered accounting errors that made two financial filings last year unreliable, and that its 2022 annual report would be filed late as a result.