Seeing dollar signs: Former finance head sells waterfront Delray Beach mansion

A former CEO at Equifax and Fidelity National Information Services sold his waterfront Delray Beach mansion to the CEO of a marketing company.

The buyers, Robert Bartosiewicz and his wife, Kim, paid $5 million for the nearly 10,000-square-foot mansion at 963 Evergreen Drive in the Tropic Isle community, according to records.

The sellers, Lee Kennedy and his wife, Pamela, paid $6 million for the house in 2016, records show.

Ari Albinder with Mizner Grande Realty had the listing, according to an online listing. It first hit the market for $8 million in 2018 and had multiple price reductions, settling at $5.5 million in May.

The three-story, gated mansion on the Intracoastal Waterway was built in 2003. It features a home theater, exercise room and saltwater aquarium. It has six bedrooms and six bathrooms.

Robert Bartosiewicz is CEO and chairman of Rochester, New York-based CGI Communication, a marketing company for small businesses and cities that he founded in the 1980s. Bartosiewicz also hosts his private collection of muscle cars at his Rochester Auto Museum, including the red 1958 Plymouth Fury from the movie “Christine,” according to a 2017 Democrat & Chronicle article.

Bartosiewicz and his company have met with some controversy over the years. Allegations include hiring the Rochester mayor’s daughter at about the time the company received a $2.1 million loan from the city, aggressive sales tactics, underpaying subcontractors and misrepresenting business relationships, according to a 2018 article from Rochester for All, a citizen watchdog group that has since ceased operations.

According to the article, Bartosiewicz settled a lawsuit from a former executive assistant who accused the CEO of kneeing him in the thigh and causing the assistant to get a full knee replacement.

Lee Kennedy was president of Telecredit Service Center from 1981 until 1990, when it was acquired by consumer credit reporting agency Equifax for about $600 million, according to media reports. He eventually became president and COO of Equifax in 1999. In 2002, he became head of Equifax spinoff Certegy, which became one of the largest credit and debit card processors in the U.S.

Certegy was purchased by Fidelity National Financial, the nation’s largest title insurance company in 2006, according to media reports. That year, Fidelity National restructured, spinning off title insurer Fidelity National Title and keeping financial software developer Fidelity National Information Services, or FIS. Jacksonville-based FIS retained Kennedy as president and CEO, but he left the CEO role in 2009 after FIS acquired Metavante Technologies for about $3 billion. He retired the following year.

Tropic Isle is a waterfront community east of Federal Highway and south of Linton Boulevard, consisting of 430 single-family homes on canals that feed into the Intracoastal Waterway, according to the voluntarily run Tropic Isle Civic Association.

Among other recent deals in Delray Beach, Cortland Partners paid $73.9 million in July for a 284-unit apartment complex called Depot Station. In February, a building, home to the popular Johnnie Brown’s restaurant, sold for $7.3 million. And in January, a couple sold their lakefront estate with its own Chanel boutique-inspired closet for $17 million.