Prominent Miami attorney John Ruiz continues wheeling and dealing in lavish Coral Gables mansions.
Records show 600 620 Arvida Parkway LLC, an entity with the same address as Ruiz’s companies MSP Recovery Law Firm and MSP Recovery, sold a waterfront house at 80 Leucadendra Drive in Gables Estates for $13.8 million. The entity paid $11 million for the 1-acre property in March of last year.
The buyer is a trust controlled by Carolina Marie Garcia Pirez, Jacqueline Marie Garcia Haley and Victor Garcia. The trio are relatives of Perfumania co-founder Rene Garcia. Garcia Pirez and her husband, Alex Pirez, own Body & Soul Miami fitness club in Coconut Grove.
Alex Pirez, who is also a broker with Mocca Realty, represented the buyer, and Diana Gutierrez, also with Mocca Realty, represented the seller.
Built in 1973, the 10,351-square-foot mansion has five bedrooms and six-and-a-half bathrooms, a grand foyer, media room, two offices, a chef’s kitchen, wine cellar and a four-car garage. The property features 270 feet of water frontage and a 50-foot boat dock.
According to an online listing, the site is primed for redevelopment with approved plans for a “tropical modern” house. Designed by Cesar Molina, the new mansion would have 12,868 square feet with seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and two half-bathrooms.
Earlier this month, Ruiz paid $25 million for a 14,433-square-foot, eight-bedroom mansion at 830 Arvida Parkway in Gables Estates.
Last year, he also bought a tropical resort-style estate at 620 Arvida Parkway in Gables Estates from Leon Medical Centers founder Benjamin Leon Jr. Ruiz paid $49 million, which was the second-highest sale price for a single-family home ever in Miami-Dade County.
Ruiz’s companies MSP Recovery Law Firm and MSP Recovery specialize in recovering Medicare and Medicaid healthcare payments that should have been covered by other parties. In July, MSP Recovery merged with Lionheart Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company owned by Ophir Sternberg.
Sternberg is founder and CEO of Lionheart Capital, a Miami-based real estate development and investment firm.