UM booster John Ruiz buys another waterfront home in Gables Estates

Leon Medical Centers founder Benjamin Leon Jr. sold a waterfront home in Gables Estates to John Ruiz, adding to the trial attorney’s holdings in the neighborhood and marking yet another deal between the two Miami businessmen.

A company led by Leon sold the five-bedroom, nearly 6,300-square-foot house at 550 Arvida Parkway in Coral Gables to an LLC managed by Ruiz for $22 million, property records show. Ruiz, through another entity, also owns the house next door at 530 Arvida Parkway, bringing the total he has paid for both homes to $47 million.

Leon’s 550 Arvida Investment LLC paid $10.9 million in 2019 for the house Ruiz just purchased, records show.

Ruiz, a prominent University of Miami Hurricanes booster, owns Coral Gables-based MSP Recovery and MSP Recovery Law Firm, which focus on recovering Medicare and Medicaid health care payments that should have been covered by other parties. MSP Recovery merged with Lionheart Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company owned by developer Ophir Sternberg, last year. 

Ruiz has been in the news recently for his proposal to build a stadium for the University of Miami Hurricanes football team at Miami-Dade County’s Tropical Park, going so far as to have renderings created for the proposed project. The unsolicited stadium proposal has garnered significant opposition from critics who are opposed to the county selling park land.

Ruiz’s most recent Coral Gables acquisition could be a teardown, especially if he plans to combine it with the adjacent property. The house was built in 1971 and expanded in 2003, according to property records. The 1-acre lot includes a pool and dock. Ruiz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alex Pirez with Mocca Realty was the listing agent. The property was asking $24 million, according to Realtor.com.

Last year, Ruiz paid $25 million for the mansion next door. He followed that with the $13.8 million sale of a teardown at 80 Leucadendra Drive, also in Gables Estates.

Two years ago, Ruiz paid $49 million — at the time the second-highest single-family home sale in Miami-Dade County — for Leon’s tropical resort-style mansion at 620 and 630 Arvida Parkway.

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