Herbert Hill Peyton started the company in 1960 with a single gas station on Jacksonville's Northside. The company grew during the 1960s with additional stations in Jacksonville and then the southeast United States. The name "Gate" comes from the city of Jacksonville's slogan at that time, "The Gateway to Florida". In response to the
1973 oil crisis, the company began to diversify and added convenience items to their filling station shelves. • The first alternative investment was a farm in nearby
Hastings, Florida that grew potatoes. Overall, it was a profitable investment, but the asset was eventually sold. •
Gate Roofing Company was created during 1978 in
Green Cove Springs, Florida to manufacture
asphalt felt. The business was successful and the plant was expanded and operated 24/7 before being sold to
Tamko Building Products in 1994. • In the early 1980s, Peyton transformed the company from a petroleum retailer to a diversified conglomerate. He bought the Florida real estate holdings of
Stockton, Whatley, Davin & Co. (SWD), which was then owned by
Phillips Petroleum Company for $60 million. The 1983 purchase contained more than of land in northeast Florida including the
Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, parcels at
Ponte Vedra Beach,
Deerwood Country Club,
Southpoint and the Guana tract. • The first property to be sold was the of primitive woodlands on the Guana River. The
Florida Department of Environmental Protection purchased the property for $49 million that became the
Guana River State Park now part of
Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. • The initial segment of J. Turner Butler Boulevard (
State Road 202) was completed in 1979 and access to that geographical area was improved, facilitating development of the area east of
Interstate 95. Gate partnered with the Bryant Skinner Company in 1980 to create the
Southpoint office park and the area northeast of the intersection became
Southpoint (Jacksonville). • When manufacturer Houdaille-Duval decided to eliminate their Florida construction division in 1980, Gate purchased a Jacksonville
prestressed concrete plant and five asphalt plants for $10 million. The asphalt plants were resold a year later and Gate offered $1 million for Houdaille-Duval's prestressed concrete plant in
Houston, which was worth twice that amount. H-D accepted the offer, and both concrete plants are still
Gate Concrete assets. •
Epping Forest, the former estate of
Alfred I. du Pont, was acquired from
Raymond K. Mason in 1984 for $8 million. At the time, Mason was Chairman of the
Charter Company, which was facing bankruptcy. •
Westinghouse Electric Company, who jointly developed the east side of
Blount Island with
Tenneco in the early 1970s at a cost of $125 million in the failed
Offshore Power Systems venture, sold the property to Gate for $17 million in 1985. In November 1990, the property's 20-year-old crane, once the world's largest, was sold to the
China State Shipbuilding Corporation for $3 million. It was dismantled and shipped overseas. • Gate purchased 28
7-Eleven convenience stores in Jacksonville and Alachua county in 1990, along with a
noncompete agreement for 20 years. spent several million dollars to renovate it, and renamed it
Riverplace Tower. Gate Petroleum sold the building on October 31, 2014, to
CFLC Replace LLC in Glen Allen, VA for $29.0 million • In February 2008, Gate acquired
150 West Main Street, a 20-story office building in
Norfolk, Virginia. Filling stations and convenience stores are still the core business of the company, which operates from a corporate headquarters in
Sunbeam.
Elkins Constructors built the facility in 1999. The Peyton family owns 80% of the company, and the rest belongs to "Brothers": long-term employees (both male and female).
John Peyton, the oldest son of company founder Herb Peyton, took an eight-year leave from Gate to serve two terms as
Jacksonville's mayor from 2003 to 2011. John returned to the family business and was named company President when his father, Herb retired on January 3, 2012. Herb remained chairman and Mitchell Rhodes was promoted to chief operating officer. Hill Peyton became Vice President of Marketing. In Jacksonville, Gate is Northeast Florida's 16th-largest private sector employer. == Divisions ==