About

Lending

As a commercial mortgage lender, Briar Cliff Financial Services has made over $57 million in commercial mortgage loans on all types of collateral, including single-family, multi-family, retail, office, mixed-use, light industrial, and undeveloped land. Briar Cliff is a direct, privately owned mortgage lender specializing in small to medium size commercial mortgage loans on properties located in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. Briar Cliff performs all origination, underwriting, and servicing functions in-house.

 

Brokerage

As a commercial mortgage broker, Briar Cliff has arranged over $405 million in commercial mortgage financing on a variety of property types including multifamily, office, self-storage, retail, mixed-use, as well as construction and rehab funding.

 
 

team members

Lawrence R. Newman - principal

Founder of Briar Cliff Financial Services, currently in charge of BCFS Brokerage.  Prior to the formation of Briar Cliff Financial Services, Mr. Newman worked for 7 years as an appraiser and loan officer for the Real Estate Department of Prudential Insurance Company, Newark NJ, and 14 years at Westinghouse Credit Corporation where he served as both a loan officer and credit reviewer.

 

Robert a. Newman - Principal

Currently in charge of BCFS Lending operations. Prior to joining Briar Cliff in 2012, Robert spent 3 years as an Analyst in the CMBS department of National Cooperative Bank (NCB) and 4 years as a Director for Potomac Capital Advisors, a regional private equity fund manager focused on joint venture real estate investments.

Alex R. Glisan - relationship manager

Responsible for new client outreach and underwriting. Prior to joining Briar Cliff in 2021, Alex spent 3 years as an Analyst for JLL Capital Markets and 2 years as an analyst for Evergreen RE Development. He is a 2017 graduate of IUP’s Eberly College of Business.

 

Kaitlin S. newman - loan servicing manager

Responsible for loan servicing and accounting. Kate is a licensed CPA who has previously worked in the audit department of BDO as a Senior Manager and as Technical Accounting Manager for JLL Capital Markets prior to joining Briar Cliff in 2021.