Chris Paciello flips waterfront Sunset Islands teardown in one month for 50% gain

Paciello paid $9.3M for the teardown in March, sold it for $14M

1400 W 23rd Street on the Sunset Islands
1400 W 23rd Street on the Sunset Islands

Anatomy Fitness owner Chris Paciello picked up a waterfront teardown in Miami Beach for $9.3 million, and flipped it one month later for 50 percent more to the next door neighbor, The Real Deal has learned.

Paciello, whose real name is Christian Ludwigsen, bought the home at 1400 West 23rd Street on the Sunset Islands in mid-March, and flipped it to neighbor Jason Wright for $14 million, according to public records and broker Nelson Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, a top agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty, represented Paciello in the off-market sale, and Ana Teresa Rodriguez with Coldwell Banker represented the buyer.

Flipping for a huge profit is becoming more common in Miami Beach and other parts of South Florida.

“He really wanted to develop it, but the price got to a point where he couldn’t say no,” Gonzalez said.

Wright, a venture capital investor and partner at Apax Partners, owns the modern mansion next door, which he acquired in early 2021 for $18.5 million. The properties are on Sunset Island I.

Attorney Michael Gallinar of Adams Gallinar P.A. worked on the deal on behalf of Paciello.

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The latest sale gives Wright a total of nearly 33,000 square feet of land, or about 0.8 acres. Spec home developer Todd Michael Glaser and his partner Rony Seikaly sold the neighboring property to Wright early last year. It had been partially completed by architect Kobi Karp when Karp and his wife, Nancy sold the property to Glaser and Seikaly.

Paciello’s property next door has a two-story, roughly 7,000-square-foot house on the lot with a pool and dock. The home was built in 1937 and expanded in 1995.

Paciello, an ex-Mafia associate and convicted felon who later ran nightclubs in Miami Beach in the 1990s, is now a real estate investor in addition to owning the Anatomy Fitness chain of gyms, which has locations in Miami Beach, Midtown Miami and Coconut Grove.

In March, Paciello sold the non-waterfront home 5645 North Bay Road for $9 million, a record for dry properties on the bayfront street and one of the most expensive non-waterfront home sales in Miami Beach’s history.

Records show that in February, Paciello bought two adjacent homes in Coconut Grove for $3.7 million.