Shipping tycoon buys flipped waterfront Hibiscus Island teardown for $17.5M

Deal marks second flip of the property in just over a year

Leon Patitsas, CEO of Atlas Maritime, and 225 North Hibiscus Drive in Miami Beach (LinkedIn/Leon Patitsas, Redfin)
Leon Patitsas, CEO of Atlas Maritime, and 225 North Hibiscus Drive in Miami Beach (LinkedIn/Leon Patitsas, Redfin)

Shipping tycoon Leon Patitsas bought a waterfront Hibiscus Island teardown for $17.5 million, marking the second flip of the property in just over a year.

Patitsas, through an affiliate, bought the eight-bedroom home at 225 North Hibiscus Drive in Miami Beach, according to records. The buying entity borrowed $11.4 million from City National Bank of Florida. Michael Scott of Beverly Hills appears to be a co-buyer, as both he and Patitsas signed off on the mortgage as managers of the purchasing entity.

Patitsas is CEO of Atlas Maritime, a shipping company that owns and manages a fleet of oil tankers and dry cargo vessels, according to the firm’s website. Atlas has offices in London and Athens, Greece.

Scott invests in mobile home communities, according to media reports.

Chad Carroll of Compass represented the seller, and Douglas Elliman’s Dina Goldentayer brought the buyer.

The home sold twice in the span of three months last year. Ronald Leonhardt, president and CEO of Brecksville, Ohio-based mortgage firm CrossCountry Mortgage, paid $11.8 million for the house in February 2021. Two months later, in April, he sold it for $13 million to a limited liability company managed by Young Kim. That LLC just flipped the house to Patitsas.

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The house spans 7,050 square feet and includes five baths, according to Realtor.com. It was built in 1934 on 0.6 acres, and Redfin photos show it has a barrel-tile roof and salmon-colored exterior walls.

The property had been slated for demolition before Leonhardt put in his unsolicited offer last year.

Patitsas’ purchase is the latest in a long string of waterfront home sales in Miami Beach, with Hibiscus Island netting its fair share of the activity.

This month, attorney Joseph Frank, chief legal officer for Windsor, Connecticut-based SS&C Technologies, bought the mansion at 369 North Hibiscus Drive on Hibiscus Island for $13.8 million.

Also this month, mobile games tycoon Kevin Segalla and his wife, Michele Segalla, an investment manager, bought a waterfront spec mansion on Hibiscus Island for $29.1 million.

Richard Gebbia, a member of the Gebbia family that owns Siebert Financial, in April bought the non-waterfront spec house at 112 West Palm Midway on Hibiscus Island for $6.4 million.