Applegreen has completed its $450 million project to rebuild or renovate all 27 service areas along the 570-mile New York State Thruway.
The project, which began in 2021, created modern, sustainable and welcoming destinations for travelers, Applegreen said Wednesday in a LinkedIn post. Modena Service Area, located on the Thruway (I-87) between exit 18 and 17, was the last location to reopen, marking the end of the project, a news release from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
“We are proud to have delivered on our commitment to redefine roadside hospitality with over 80 quick-service restaurants and enhanced facilities,” Applegreen said in the post. “We have set a new standard for roadside hospitality while supporting thousands of construction jobs and creating more than 2,000 long-term roles delivering service 24/7, 365 days a year.”
- Applegreen is No. 47 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
Upgrades include amenities like outdoor pet walking areas, electric vehicle charging stations, nesting stations and farmers market locations, the company said. New restaurants in the plazas include Popeyes, Burger King, Pret A Manger, Auntie Anne's, Dunkin' and Taste NY, which features New York food and beverage vendors.
“At Applegreen, our entire focus is service plazas,” Bob Etchingham, Applegreen’s founder and chairman, said in a video attached to the LinkedIn post. “This is what we do, and we believe that it’s possible to take these everyday spaces and transform them into extraordinary destinations that meet the needs of real people.”
Work remains ongoing at some service area locations to install EV chargers and high-speed diesel fueling facilities, Hochul's office said. Applegreen will install at least four universal fast-charging stations (Level 3) at every service area with up to 350 kilowatts of power that support all EVs. Currently, there are 103 universal fast-charging stations available on the Thruway.
Service areas are open 24 hours a day. In 2024, motorists drove 8.2 billion miles on the Thruway, the governor's office said.
The completion of the New York project comes two months after the Dublin-based convenience retailer pulled out of a 35-year lease with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to rebuild and refurbish 18 rest stops and service plazas across the state. Waltham, Massachusetts-based Global Partners LP, one of the losing bidders for the contract, fought the awarding of the lease.
A major highway service plaza operator in the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom, Applegreen operates about 440 locations and has more than 700 branded food and beverage offers, and 1,385 EV charging ports serving millions of travelers.
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