Mitchell D. Clarfield is a vice chairman with Newmark Knight Frank’s Multifamily Capital Markets Debt & Structured Finance group in the Santa Monica office. He specializes in multi-tranche and highly structured transactions. During his career, he has originated over $16 billion in multifamily loans and has completed over $10 billion in commercial and multifamily mortgage acquisitions and sales. Since 2018, Mr. Clarfield and his team have originated over $5 billion in Multifamily loans with over $2.1 billion in 2020 alone, making him one of the company’s and industry’s top producers. Mr. Clarfield and his team are the primary points of contact for servicing and asset management on the over $8 billion of outstanding debt that he and his team have originated.
Prior to joining Newmark’s predecessor firm in 2001, Mr. Clarfield founded Carbon Mesa Advisors in 1994 and served as its president until its sale to the WMF Group, LTD in April 1998. Mr. Clarfield oversaw the growth of Carbon Mesa’s funds management business to over $450 Million of interim, mezzanine and other structured finance assets. Mr. Clarfield was also an executive vice president for the WMF Group, LTD and served on its executive loan committee.
Prior to the sale to WMF Group, Carbon Mesa engaged in origination of commercial mortgages, the acquisition, resolution and sale of distressed commercial mortgages, as well as performing advisory services for institutional clients.
In 1990, Mr. Clarfield was one of the four co-founders and Principals of Secured Capital Corp. There, he helped lead the company to the preeminent position in the non-performing and sub-performing Commercial and Multifamily Mortgage Market, successfully completing over $7 billion in assets sales and over $1 billion in acquisitions in less than four years.
From 1985 to 1990, Mr. Clarfield was a vice president in the Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities Department at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. in Beverly Hills, California. There, he had primary responsibility for the real estate credit and due diligence functions.
After graduation, Mr. Clarfield joined the Commercial Mortgage Consulting Group of Kenneth Leventhal & Company, where in 1984 he worked on the development of the original commercial mortgage securities rating model with Standard & Poor’s.
Professional Affiliations
- Executive committee member, Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- Policy advisory board member, Fisher Center for Real Estate, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
- Sustaining member, UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate
- Former president, LA Real Estate and Construction Industries Council
Education
A graduate of Fairfield University with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting, summa cum laude, Mr. Clarfield also earned a Master of Business Administration degree in real estate finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.