Updated:
Bridgewater Bancshares
Jerry Baack's Bridgewater Bancshares is a publicly traded Twin Cities commercial bank with a loan book concentrated in Minneapolis multifamily and CRE.
Bridgewater Bancshares
Bridgewater Bancshares launched in 2005 as a de novo community bank based in Bloomington, Minnesota, founded by CEO Jerry Baack and a group of local banking veterans dissatisfied with the consolidation of Twin Cities lenders. The bank was purpose-built to serve commercial real estate investors, C&I borrowers, and high-net-worth depositors in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro. The firm operates through its wholly owned subsidiary, Bridgewater Bank, running a loan portfolio dominated by multifamily, office, industrial, and construction credits. Bridgewater is not a generalist — its balance sheet lives and dies on metro CRE, which accounted for roughly 80% of total loans at the time of its IPO. Deposit gathering relies on commercial and retail sweep accounts rather than a traditional branch network, which keeps the funding base granular but is itself sensitive to local business cycles. Bridgewater completed its NASDAQ listing (BWB) in March 2018, valuing the bank at roughly $350 million at the time. Since then, it has grown organically across the metro, with a single banking office and a loan production office in St. Louis added during the pandemic. Total assets crossed $4.4 billion by early 2023, up from less than $1.5 billion at IPO, driven by sustained organic loan originations rather than M&A. In December 2023, the firm swore in a new CFO, Joe Chybowski, succeeding longtime finance chief Jeff Shellberg as part of a broader executive transition. Structurally, Bridgewater is a publicly traded community bank, not a family office — a distinction that matters for allocators mapping regional credit exposure. Governance sits with a majority-independent board, and the bank reports quarterly SEC filings that disclose loan book concentrations with unusual transparency for a sub-$5 billion institution. That level of disclosure, paired with a single-metro loan book, means an investor can track the bank’s exact exposure to Minneapolis multifamily cap rates quarter by quarter — an uncommon level of granularity in a public small-cap.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2005
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Bloomington
Corporate office
Bloomington, MN, United States
Principals
Jerry Baack
Chairman, President & CEO
Joe Chybowski
Chief Financial Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Is Bridgewater Bancshares structured as a bank or an asset manager?
Bridgewater Bancshares operates as a publicly traded bank holding company whose primary asset is Bridgewater Bank, a Minnesota-chartered commercial bank. It is not a registered investment advisor or a fund manager. The institution originates and holds loans on its own balance sheet rather than managing third-party capital, making it a credit operator, not a traditional asset manager in the allocator sense.
What is the composition of Bridgewater's loan book?
The loan book is heavily concentrated in commercial real estate, primarily multifamily and commercial properties in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. At the time of its 2018 IPO, CRE loans represented roughly four-fifths of the total portfolio. The remainder is split among C&I lending and, to a lesser extent, consumer and construction credits.
How did the bank perform during the regional banking stress of 2023?
Bridgewater maintained stable deposit flows through the spring 2023 turmoil that hit some regional peers. Its deposit base, built from long-tenured commercial relationships and a small branch footprint, did not experience the sudden outflows that plagued institutions with heavy uninsured deposit concentrations tied to venture or crypto sectors. The bank's net interest margin remained positive, though higher funding costs pressured earnings.
Who runs investment and credit decisions at Bridgewater?
Executive credit authority rests with CEO Jerry Baack, who has led the bank since its founding in 2005, and the senior lending team in Bloomington. The board's risk committee oversees concentration limits and portfolio-level exposure. Because Bridgewater retains most of what it originates, its credit committee is effectively the firm's investment committee, deciding which property-level credits land on the bank's balance sheet.
Has Bridgewater Bancshares made any acquisitions?
No. Bridgewater has grown entirely through organic loan and deposit generation since receiving its charter in 2005. The bank has not acquired another institution, which is unusual for a community bank that more than tripled its asset base in the five years following its IPO. Management has repeatedly signaled a preference for organic growth in public filings.
What regulatory disclosures are available for Bridgewater?
As a publicly traded Nasdaq-listed company (ticker: BWB), Bridgewater files quarterly 10-Qs, annual 10-Ks, and current reports with the SEC. These filings include detailed breakdowns of loan portfolio composition, credit quality metrics, deposit mix, and executive compensation. The bank also files standard FDIC call reports as an insured depository institution.
Is Bridgewater Bancshares connected to Bridgewater Associates, the hedge fund?
No. There is no operational, ownership, or strategic relationship between Bridgewater Bancshares and Bridgewater Associates, the Westport, Connecticut-based macro hedge fund founded by Ray Dalio. The shared name is a geographic coincidence — Bridgewater Bank takes its name from the local township and river in Minnesota's Dakota County.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on family offices?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: