A New Partnership

Todd Gates was in his Bonita Springs office a year ago when he received a most unusual phone call.

A consultant hired by the Seminole Tribe of Florida asked Gates to consider responding to a request for proposals to form a joint venture with the tribe to bid on construction projects.

Gates is no stranger to such arrangements. After all, he teamed up with Swedish construction giant Skanska to win the contract to build the Golisano Children's Hospital in Fort Myers, currently the largest project on the Gulf Coast. “By ourselves, it would've been very difficult to win it,” he says.