Briar Capital, which has provided customized asset-based financing solutions since 2003, has moved award from accounts receivable and inventory financing to focus exclusively on owner-occupied, commercial real estate financing solutions while still using an asset-based approach.

Now operating as Briar Capital Real Estate Fund, the nationwide asset-based lender’s primary product offering consists of long-term amortization and covenant-free real estate term loans to credit-challenged borrowers.  In addition to term loan offerings, Briar Capital provides interest-only, revolving lines of credit, all secured by owner-occupied commercial real estate.

Briar Capital operates nationwide and will consider deal sizes from $1MM to $10MM with property types such as manufacturing facilities, office/warehouse buildings and distribution centers.

“Commercial real estate has always been an overlooked asset class in the ABL space,” says Frank Goldberg, founder and chairman of Briar Capital.   “We decided to leave the crowded field of working capital ABL lending and instead focus on the commercial real estate lending side – it’s what we do best.”

Since the firm no longer competes with working capital ABL’s, Goldberg says Briar Capital now partners with them to solve even the most challenging credit solutions.

“Having been in the working capital space for the past 16 years, we understand the wants and needs of the traditional ABL lender,” he adds.  “In fact, we’re often brought in by existing ABL lenders to help finance a company’s real estate assets using our cash flow-friendly, long-term amortization and covenant-free structures.”

Jeff Van Sickle, president of Briar Capital Real Estate Fund, goes on to draw a sharp contrast between Briar Capital and hard money lenders.

“We’re much less expensive than a hard money lender and we’re not interested in owning property,” Van Sickle says.  “We’re in the lending business, plain and simple, not the property ownership or management business.”

Speaking further to that point he adds, “Despite extending hundreds of millions of dollars in credit in a variety of challenging situations, Briar Capital has taken ownership of only one property in 16 years, a foreclosure caused by the impact of a natural disaster.”