MassDOT taps Irish firm Applegreen to redevelop 18 highway service plazas

Boston Globe

a day ago

Applegreen would completely replace buildings at nine of the 18 service plazas, and make significant retrofits to the others. In total, Applegreen has pledged to make $750 million in capital improvements over the life of the contract. The company also would share a portion of the revenue it earns at these plazas with the state, totaling at least $28.4 million a year on average over the contract term — or nearly $1 billion that would go to the state over time.
MassDOT chief development officer Scott Bosworth told the board members that Applegreen would also improve traffic flow at many of the rest stops.
One goal is to reduce conflicts between truckers and car drivers as part of reconfigurations that will add nearly 500 new spaces across the rest areas, a 24 percent increase.
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'They have demonstrated real-world experience in turning over these facilities, and state-of-the-art revitalization programs,' Bosworth said of Applegreen. 'We feel we've got a strong partner, we're excited about this partnership [and] we're on the cusp of beginning a new day for our service plazas in Massachusetts.'
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The contract, which has a 10-year extension option, will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026 for 14 of the 18 service areas: the 11 on the turnpike, plus rest areas in Lexington, Newton, and Plymouth; Applegreen is slated to replace McDonald's as the food concessionaire and Gulf for the fuel. The contract for the other four plazas — currently operated by Waltham-based petroleum supplier Global Partners in Bridgewater, Barnstable, and Beverly — will switch over on June 30, 2027.
There isn't much time to make the transition, with leases expiring in six months on most of the plazas. Applegreen was picked in part because of its readiness to get started with the extensive permitting and construction work necessary. Its team includes general contractor Suffolk Construction and designers at Upland Architects.
Active in the US since 2014, Applegreen has been expanding in this country lately, fueled in large part by Blackstone after the private equity firm acquired a controlling stake in 2021. Applegreen is wrapping up a 27-area redevelopment in New York; Bosworth said the Applegreen team that's leading
the New York project will move over to Massachusetts.
An Applegreen spokesperson offered a brief statement when asked about the committee's vote on Wednesday: 'We're proud of our proposal, and hope to have the opportunity to work with the state and MassDOT to improve the travel experiences of drivers across Massachusetts.'
MassDOT's procurement process has been shrouded in secrecy until now — a fact that irked Quincy Mayor Tom Koch, a MassDOT board member.
'I'm disappointed I didn't have more information ahead of time,' Koch said. 'This is a big vote. I just think we're just kind of glossing over ... a major vote of this board.'
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Bosworth told Koch that he would have preferred to share more information but was advised by MassDOT legal counsel to limit the public information on the process while the procurement was still ongoing.
At Wednesday's meeting, Bosworth disclosed that six companies had made initial bids for the service-plaza contract last fall: Love's Travel Stops, 7-Eleven, Applegreen, Gulf owner RaceTrac, Global, and fuel distributor Energy North.
Among other things, MassDOT's original bidding documents called for
Applegreen has promised to keep operating bathroom and gas services at the rest areas while they are under construction, Bosworth said, and to not shut down two consecutive plaza buildings along the turnpike at the same time.
Susan Snyder,
a top lawyer at MassDOT,
told the planning committee that the state faces a big financial risk if a new operator isn't chosen soon. Six months, she said, is the minimum amount of time necessary to transition to a new rest stop operator, and MassDOT wouldn't have much leverage if negotiations were needed to extend the leases beyond Jan. 1.
'There's just a ton of work that has to be done,' Bosworth said. 'Having said that, we have selected an operator that has proven they can do it under the gun.'
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Jon Chesto can be reached at