Federal contractor drops $17M on waterfront Fort Lauderdale spec mansion 

Luke Hillier, the co-founder of defense industry supplier ADS, dropped $16.9 million on a waterfront Fort Lauderdale spec mansion.

Records show Hillier bought the house at 74 Isla Bahia Drive from 400 Coral Way Partners LLC, a Florida entity managed by Douglas Wood and Michael Mullen. 

Mitchel Mullen of Fidelity Real Estate had the listing.

Hillier is the co-founder of Virginia Beach-based ADS, formerly known as Atlantic Diving Supply. It started out as a diving supply shop, and originally specialized in military diving needs, according to published reports. It is now one of the largest federal contractors in the country, with billions of dollars in revenue, according to published reports. In 2020, an investigation by the Washington Post found that ADS had allegedly fraudulently received a $2 million Paycheck Protection Program small business loan. In 2019, Hillier also paid $20 million to settle False Claims Act allegations that he misrepresented the size of his business to secure deals slated for small companies, the outlet reported. 

Mullen and Wood bought the Isla Bahia Drive site for $3.1 million in 2019, records show. They completed the 7,900-square-foot mansion with six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and two half-bathrooms this year, according to the listing and records. The home also has a pool and a 130-foot dock, the listing shows. 

The spec developers listed it for $19.5 million in January of last year. 

It’s been an action-packed year for Fort Lauderdale’s luxury real estate market. In October, Bang energy founder Jack Owoc bought an oceanfront mansion for $40 million, marking a price record for Broward County residential sales. In September, soccer superstar Lionel Messi bought a waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale’s gated Bay Colony neighborhood for $10.8 million. Another Inter Miami star, Luis Suárez, followed suit in March and bought a Bay Colony home for $11.8 million.