Who are the Pohlads, the family selling the Minnesota Twins?

Carl Pohlad was born to a poor family in Iowa in 1915.

He learned the banking business collecting on loans during the Great Depression when he was still in high school.

He served as an infantryman in Europe during World War II, earning three Purple Hearts.

By age 34 he was part owner of Marquette Bank in Minneapolis — eventually acquired by U.S. Bank — and was its CEO in the 1950s and beyond.

Pohlad branched out into car dealerships, commercial real estate, more banks and a Pepsi bottling operation in the years following to become wealthy enough to buy the Minnesota Twins for $44 million in 1984. That’s more than $133 million in 2024 dollars, adjusted for inflation.

All told, those businesses would make him worth more than $3 billion by the time he died in 2009 at age 93.

His sons, Jim, Bill and Bob, divvied up the business empire and continue to run it today — at least what they haven’t sold.

The Pohlads sold the bottling giant PepsiAmericas in 2010; Marquette Financial Cos. in 2014; and Carousel Motor Group earlier this year.

The Pohlad Cos. remain heavily invested in commercial real estate through Northmarq, a commercial investment and brokerage firm, and United Properties, one of the largest commercial real estate firms in the Midwest.

Both of the real estate companies are longstanding brands with offices, investments and thousands of employees spread throughout the country. Investments are diversified and include healthy sectors such as industrial, senior living and multifamily housing, although some of the business is in the ailing office sector.

Despite ongoing disruption in the downtown office market, the RBC Gateway tower that houses the Four Seasons hotel in Minneapolis was fully occupied when United Properties decided to sell the office portion for $225 million last summer. Because of its price, that sale was considered a win for downtown.

Bill Pohlad also founded and runs movie production company River Road Entertainment, which backed films like “Brokeback Mountain” and “12 Years a Slave.” And the family’s investment firm has stakes in Rawlings Sporting Goods, manufacturing and logistics firms and restaurant franchising companies.

The Pohlad Family Foundation made its first grants in 1994, and today the charity focuses on racial justice and housing security and has given well over $100 million since its founding.

Bill, Jim and Bob Pohlad are now in their late 60s and early 70s and have seven children between them.

Derek Falvey, Twins president of baseball operations, told Twin Cities Business magazine in 2022 that the Pohlads “see the Twins as a public trust. They are low-ego; it’s not about them. They don’t want credit.”

The family, among the richest in Minnesota, has typically shied from publicity, but owning a major sports franchise makes anonymity hard to achieve. Bob Pohlad’s son, Joe Pohlad, has been the Twins executive chair since 2022.

Even with two World Series titles during its ownership tenure, the family has had an occasionally tense relationship with Twins fans.

Carl Pohlad once tried to sell the Twins to a North Carolina businessman who planned to relocate the team. Pohlad also nearly dissolved the team when Major League Baseball was considering contraction. He demanded public funding for what became Target Field, the $545 million stadium that opened in downtown Minneapolis in 2010 with $185 million in Pohlad family support.

Carl Pohlad’s estate argued in court a decade ago that the family’s stake in the Twins was worth just $24 million. The IRS said it was worth $293 million.

Star Tribune staff writer Jim Buchta contributed to this report.