President Donald Trump’s real estate company has closed on one of its first big deals since his inauguration—selling a Manhattan penthouse to the owner of a Chinese business consultancy for nearly $16 million.
Trump Park Avenue, LLC, which operates a posh condominium on Upper East Side of Manhattan, sold the three-bedroom penthouse last week to Angela Chen, a New York socialite and founder of Global Alliance Associates, according to property records.
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Ms. Chen bills her boutique business on her website as a "relationship consultancy" that helps U.S. companies build connections with highly influential private and public people in China with the goal to expand U.S. business into mainland China.
Property records show Ms. Chen bought the penthouse under her Chinese name Xiao Yan Chen for $15.893 million. Mother Jones first reported the sale on Monday, and a source also confirmed to Mansion Global that Ms. Chen is the buyer.
She also happens to run her business consultancy out of the luxury condominium on Park Avenue. Global Alliance lists its New York City headquarters in suite 5E of Trump Park Avenue.
The company’s website boasts its ability to use its network of contacts to break through China’s complicated bureaucracy.
"We help assure our clients of a smooth and efficient transition into China by putting them in direct contact with key decision makers that can make the transition happen skillfully and efficiently," Global Alliance says on its website. "Bureaucratic inefficiencies and superfluous expenditures are minimized."
Among the "pending affiliations" listed on the website are two government entities: the U.S. Department of Commerce and the United States Trade and Development Agency.
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Ms. Chen also occupies a third unit in the building, a two-bedroom apartment on the fifth floor, which is listed as her mailing address on the deed for the penthouse she just bought. That unit sold for $3.6 million in 2004 to an entity called The Lancer Trust, according to property records. It’s not clear whether Ms. Chen owns or rents the unit.
Meanwhile, her new penthouse was never listed publicly and appears to have never been lived in, according to property records. It has three bedrooms, five-and-a-half baths and around 3,800 square feet of space.
Ms. Chen did not immediately return a request for comment about the sale. Likewise, the Trump Organization did not immediately return a request for comment.
(Fang Block contributed to this story.)