“Real Housewives” star, fiancé drop $22M on waterfront Coral Gables estate

They recently sold Journeys End manse to Jeff Bezos’ parents for $44M

A “Real Housewives” couple bought a waterfront estate in Coral Gables that they plan to customize for their family, after selling their nearby mansion to Jeff Bezos’ parents for $44 million.

Attorney Anthony Lopez and his fiancée, anesthesiologist Dr. Nicole Martin, paid $21.5 million for the 10,860-square-foot, seven-bedroom home at 555 Reinante Avenue, property records show. Martin is on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Miami.” Lopez is a shareholder at Marin, Eljaiek, Lopez & Martinez, a Coconut Grove-based law firm.

Mercedes and Rodolfo Hernandez sold the 1-acre estate, which includes 435 feet of water frontage and a 75-foot dock. The Hernandezes paid $6.1 million for the property in 2012 and had the home completed in 2016. The Coral Gables house comes with a long list of amenities: a chef’s kitchen, home office, wine cellar, bar, and a backyard with a resort-style pool, outdoor kitchen, cabana and fire pit.

But the buyers, who paid all cash for the home, plan to spend about $10 million on a gut-renovation of the estate to make it their own, Lopez confirmed. Manny Varas of MV Group is expected to complete the renovation by the end of next year.

One Sotheby’s International Realty’s Saddy Abaunza Delgado represented the sellers. Dennis Carvajal of the same brokerage represented the buyers. The estate hit the market in December for $15.5 million and was re-listed in October for $21.5 million.

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In July, Lopez and Martin sold their nearly 13,000-square-foot estate at 9501 Journeys End Lane to Bezos’ mother, Jackie, and his stepfather, Mike, for $44 million, The Real Deal first reported. That was in addition to the $34 million that Jackie and Mike Bezos paid for the adjacent home at 9475 Journeys End Road. Varas also renovated the 9501 Journeys End Lane property.

Varas said the renovation includes replacing the floors, lighting, bathrooms and kitchens; creating a 1,000-square-foot walk-in closet for Martin and a roughly 600-square-foot closet for Lopez; and expanding an existing dock and adding another 100-foot dock.

The property’s peninsula-like shape, with three sides of waterfront, was appealing to the buyers. Lopez, a pilot, said he will work on adding a floating seaplane dock.

“I’ve been dying to get into seaplanes,” Lopez said.

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