Ian Glaser, Partner, BridgeInvest

In an interview with Invest:, Ian Glaser, partner at BridgeInvest, discussed how the firm has built a nationwide private credit platform by focusing on senior secured bridge lending for transitional commercial real estate assets. “We really grew out of a need in the market to provide flexible capital specifically for transitional real estate assets,” Glaser said, highlighting a strategy centered on short-duration loans, disciplined underwriting, and a vertically integrated platform that allows the firm to move quickly across market cycles.

How does BridgeInvest’s strategy differentiate the firm from traditional lenders and other private credit providers?
BridgeInvest was started in 2011 and really grew out of a need in the market to provide flexible capital specifically for transitional real estate assets. These are assets undergoing development, value-add repositioning, or lease-up. At that time, the market was restricted by regulation coming out of Dodd-Frank and Basel III, and there was a significant funding gap for assets that needed financing but no longer fit neatly into traditional bank lending boxes.

We started the business in Miami and today have grown to more than 30 employees, with a nationwide platform lending in over 20 states. Our focus is exclusively on senior secured commercial real estate loans across the full asset spectrum — multifamily, office, retail, mixed-use, industrial, hospitality, and others. The main thesis is to enhance the yield of our investors’ fixed-income portfolios while also providing downside protection by focusing on short-duration loans. These loans typically average about two years in maturity, which allows us to capture attractive spreads while staying nimble. That focus on transitional assets and short-duration lending remains the key differentiator.

How would you describe BridgeInvest’s lending programs and the borrowers you serve?

We have three main lending pillars, and all of them are senior secured. The first is development lending. That includes financing land acquisition, predevelopment opportunities that are fully entitled and ready to build, and ground-up construction financing for the vertical build of a project. It can cover anything from an apartment building to an office project or an industrial complex, and it extends all the way to the point where the asset begins leasing.

The second is our traditional bridge program. That applies to completed assets that still need to reach stabilization, usually meaning they need to become 70% or 80% leased so their cash flow can support operations. In those cases, we are often financing the lease-up period before the asset is refinanced by a bank, an agency lender such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or a commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) lender.

The third pillar is special situations lending. That includes time-sensitive closings, distressed note financing, and adaptive reuse projects. For example, that might mean converting a hotel into age-restricted multifamily or repurposing a hospital into a multifamily project. We focus on what we define as the middle market, with loans from $10 million to $100 million and a sweet spot of roughly $25 million to $60 million.

How has your capital base enabled BridgeInvest to pursue larger and more complex opportunities?

We are proud of the capital base we have built. We have more than 300 investors globally, primarily from Latin America, including strong relationships in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, along with U.S. families, registered investment advisers, and institutions. Over the last two to three years, we have also expanded our reach into Europe, parts of the Middle East, and Asia.

What is especially important is that we have maintained more than a 90% reinvestment rate from one fund to the next. Our investors are incredibly loyal, and that is a reflection of a track record of delivering consistent, high-yielding returns across different market cycles, including COVID and the rate-hike environment of 2022 and 2023. Most of that investor base has been built organically through direct relationships and referrals rather than through third parties or anchor investors. Since launching the business, we have raised more than $2 billion, and our assets under management are now just over $1 billion. That scale allows us to pursue more sophisticated transactions while preserving the flexibility that defines our model.

How are you managing growth while maintaining borrower relationships and a disciplined platform?

Our capital may be global, but our investments are exclusively in the continental United States. The evolution from a specialized lender into a national platform happened organically over many years. We did not double in size overnight. It has been a systematic growth of roughly 20% to 30% annually, supported by steady team expansion and by building a vertically integrated platform.

That vertical integration is one of the most important things we have done. We have a dedicated investment team that originates and analyzes loans, an asset management team that monitors covenant compliance and property performance, a legal team, a servicing team, an accounting team, and a capital markets team. They all sit side by side and interact constantly. That internal feedback loop is instrumental not only in managing risk, but also in making business decisions that support sustainable growth.

Geographically, expansion has also been deliberate. We started in South Florida, then entered Texas after the sharp oil price shock in 2015 and 2016 because we saw Houston as an attractive entry point. During COVID, when many capital sources were leaving the Northeast for the Southeast, we expanded into New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. More recently, we have focused on California, where we see opportunities tied to discounted and distressed assets, particularly in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Because our loans are short-duration, we can respond to market changes in real time rather than being locked into seven- or 10-year decisions.

What trends are you seeing in the commercial real estate financing market right now?

The market has become much more about strategic deployment. Sector selection and structure matter more than ever. During 2025, the market began with a slowdown through the end of 2Q25, largely because of tariff uncertainty around Liberation Day. But in the second half of the year, transaction volume picked up meaningfully, and sponsors began shifting from refinancing legacy deals toward capitalizing new acquisitions, which is a healthy signal.

We are also seeing liquidity come back into the market from CMBS lenders, insurance companies, and even some regional banks. That is positive for refinancing the kinds of bridge loans we originate. By asset class, industrial remains a long-term winner, even though higher vacancies have widened spreads modestly. Office remains bifurcated, with Class A assets in major urban centers continuing to attract capital while lower-quality assets remain under pressure. Multifamily spreads have tightened as confidence has improved, and we continue to focus on high-quality multifamily, student housing, and condominiums in supply-constrained markets.

More broadly, the market is on firmer footing than it was one or two years ago. We are also seeing more equity capital return, and that recovery is being driven by income rather than by cap rate compression. Properties that can maintain healthy operating margins and generate sustainable cash flow are leading the recovery. Historically, that is how early-stage recoveries tend to begin — through cash flow stability and incremental operational improvement — and we believe that is what we are seeing today.

How does BridgeInvest manage risk while still delivering competitive risk-adjusted returns?

Risk management occurs at every stage of the lending life cycle. First, we are specialists. For 15 years, our sole focus has been senior secured lending in the middle-market segment, primarily for transitional assets with loans between $10 million and $100 million. Over time, we have honed a strategy that seeks to capture spread premium by identifying situations where risk is being mispriced.

The vertically integrated model allows us to manage risk in real time. Unlike managers who outsource servicing or asset management, we originate, underwrite, service, and, when necessary, work out problem loans internally. That creates a continuous flow of information between originators and asset managers, allowing us to identify key pressure points early and monitor them closely. It also gives us insight into how assets evolve from land acquisition through stabilization and how liquidity changes at each stage.

We also rely heavily on data. We maintain a proprietary database of more than 8,000 loans, and in the last year alone, we reviewed over 1,300 loans. Those data points enrich our investment process and help refine our underwriting. We are also highly selective. We typically invest in only 1% to 2% of the deals we review each year. That discipline matters in this environment. This is not a market where low rates and abundant capital are creating an easy tailwind. You need to be battle-tested, conservative on leverage, focused on sponsor alignment, and willing to do the hard work.

What is the core message you want investors and borrowers to understand about BridgeInvest’s approach going forward?

The main point is that we believe we can add value at every stage of the lending life cycle on behalf of our investors. That means maintaining strict credit standards, conservative loan-to-value thresholds, meaningful borrower equity, strong downside protection, and broad diversification. But above all, it means relying on experience.

We have built a team from the ground up with specific expertise in managing risk across multiple markets and cycles. In this market, that experience is the most differentiating factor. It allows us to invest where some competitors may not, to remain disciplined while others may stretch, and to stay focused on delivering strong risk-adjusted returns through a strategy we believe remains highly relevant in today’s environment.