Karen Virginia Beckmann is making the most of owning a home at one of New York’s top addresses.
A U.S. company controlled by the Mexican heiress — part of the billionaire family behind Jose Cuervo tequila — got an $18.8 million, 30-year loan last month from Citigroup Inc. for a luxury condo at 432 Park Ave., filings show. A limited liability corporation she controls acquired the home in the 96-story tower three years ago for about $45 million, without a mortgage.
The transaction offers a glimpse at how the rich leverage assets for liquidity. Among the mega-wealthy, Elon Musk has used his shares in Tesla Inc. to obtain personal loans, while Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison has put up millions of the company’s shares to fund a lifestyle that includes trophy properties, America’s Cup teams and the Indian Wells tennis facility in California.
“You wouldn’t go and raise that amount of money to sit on the cash,” Paul Welch, founder of largemortgageloans.com, said of Beckmann’s loan. “You raise it to buy, and trade in, other assets.”
A representative for Beckmann declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for Citigroup.
The financing came about a month after Beckmann, 51, gained control of the holding company for Park Avenue Residence — the LLC that owns the condo — from her father, Becle SAB Chairman Juan Francisco Beckmann, according to a regulatory filing. The 80-year-old patriarch also transferred a chunk of his stake in the Mexico City-based spirits company to his daughter last year, making her one of the world’s richest women.
A Becle spokesperson declined to comment.
The Park Avenue building — one of the tallest residential towers in the Western Hemisphere — is among the luxury developments in Midtown Manhattan that make up Billionaires’ Row, where more homes exceeding $25 million were sold in the last five years than on any other road globally. Saudi retail magnate Fawaz Al Hokair bought the penthouse for a reported $87.7 million.
Residents at 432 Park Ave. have access to a private restaurant, 75-foot indoor swimming pool and yoga studio, private screening room and storage for their wine collections, according to the building’s website.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.
