Mortgage magnate Ronald J. Leonhardt Jr. flipped two next-door waterfront properties on Miami Beach’s Hibiscus Island for a combined $27 million, after buying them earlier this year.
Records show Leonhardt Jr. sold the homes at 225 North Hibiscus Drive and 205 North Hibiscus Drive to Hibiscus Islands Holdings LLC, a Delaware corporation in care of Los Angeles law firm Troy Gould PC.
Leonhardt is president and CEO of Brecksville, Ohio-based CrossCountry Mortgage, a mortgage lending company he founded in 2003, according to its website.
Property records show Leonhardt purchased the properties about a month apart this year. He bought the first, 225 North Hibiscus Drive, in February for $11.8 million, and the other, 205 North Hibiscus Drive, in March for $9 million.
He now sold 225 North Hibiscus Drive for $13 million, and 205 North Hibiscus Drive for $14 million, records show.
The eight-bedroom, five-bathroom house at 225 North Hibiscus Drive was built in 1934. It has 150 feet of water frontage on a 0.6-acre lot. According to Julian Johnston of The Corcoran Group, who was the selling agent in the February deal, the sellers had planned to demolish the home before Leonhardt offered to buy the property.
The home next door, at 205 North Hibiscus Drive, was built in 1956 and is on a 0.5-acre lot, according to property records.
As waterfront single-family home inventory in Miami Beach rapidly declines, investors like Eddie Irvine are swooping in to demolish or renovate homes. Irvine recently paid $10.5 million for a waterfront home nearby on Hibiscus Island.
Other recent sales on Hibiscus Island include Miami Heat’s Victor Oladipo buying a non-waterfront spec home for $7.8 million, and jewelry designer Paul Morelli purchasing a waterfront mansion for $17.5 million.