Convenience-store retailer Applegreen on Friday said it issued a cease-and-desist letter to Global Partners, marking the latest move in a dispute between the two companies over a lease to redevelop service plazas in Massachusetts.
The letter, shared with CSP by Applegreen, demanded Global Partners “immediately halt its ongoing smear campaign and dissemination of misleading financial claims.”
In June, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) selected Dublin-based Applegreen to redevelop and operate Massachusetts’ 18 highway service plazas. Global Partners was among the contenders not selected.
The cease-and-desist letter was sent to Eric Slifka, president and CEO of Waltham, Massachusetts-based Global Partners.
“Since losing a transparent, 15-month RFP [request-for-proposal] process conducted by MassDOT and supported by third-party experts, Global has resorted to PR stunts, false claims and selective figures designed to mislead Massachusetts residents and undermine confidence in the outcome,” Applegreen said. “Applegreen is taking decisive action to ensure the public has accurate information regarding the two proposals and the result of the extensive evaluation conducted by MassDOT and third-party experts.”
Energy supplier and convenience-store retailer Global Partners on Aug. 11 filed a lawsuit against MassDOT, accusing the agency of willfully violating the Massachusetts Public Records Law by failing to provide in a timely manner key documents related to the awarding of a service plaza lease to Applegreen. In July, Global Partners started pushing for a formal oversight hearing to get answers from MassDOT.
- Global Partners is No. 25 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count. Applegreen is No. 47.
In the cease-and-desist letter, Lawrence Sher, attorney at Winston and Strawn, Chicago, said, “We demand that Global immediately cease and desist from making any more false, misleading, defamatory, disparaging, damaging and/or libelous statements about Applegreen.”
The Applegreen letter cites what Applegreen says are Global’s “mischaracterizations of both companies’ financial proposals, Global’s false allegations of conflicts of interest and inaccurate claims about Applegreen’s past work.”
Applegreen said its letter “makes clear that Global’s tactics—ranging from calls for regulatory review, to an unusual and publicized State Ethics Commission complaint, to rallies and orchestrated media campaigns—represent a pressure strategy built on misinformation.”
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. The company operates 113 service plazas in the United States.
In June, MassDOT awarded Applegreen the 35-year lease to raze and rebuild nine rest stops and refurbish nine others across Massachusetts. The company invested $750 million in the project.
Bob Etchingham, CEO of Applegreen, said, “Applegreen will no longer stand by while Global misleads the public with inflated and inaccurate claims. Massachusetts residents deserve the truth. Our proposal was determined by MassDOT to be the most advantageous to the Commonwealth, with the largest investment, most innovative vision, a major investment in EV charging and sustainability and a proven track record. And we have the facts to back that up.”
Applegreen said its proposal “represents the largest-ever investment in Massachusetts service plazas—with $750 million in capital upgrades, more than 700 fast EV chargers, expanded restrooms and parking, and a Massachusetts-based construction team led by Suffolk. The project will generate 750 construction jobs and Applegreen will employ 1,500 permanent positions for local residents.”
Sean Geary, Global Partners’ chief legal officer, told CSP on Friday, “Global has been consistent in calling for one simple action: MassDOT’s transparency regarding this bid selection process. The public deserves to know why a foreign, private equity-owned operator was chosen despite submitting a bid worth nearly $900 million less in guaranteed rent to the Commonwealth. MassDOT’s own advisor, KPMG, found that Applegreen’s ‘proposed terms do not seem to meet MassDOT's stated goal of sustaining and potentially increasing the revenue source over the lease term.’”
Global Partners is a master limited partnership (MLP) that distributes fuels to wholesalers, retailers and commercial customers. In addition, the company owns, operates or supplies about 1,700 gas stations and convenience stores across the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic and Texas. C-store brands include Alltown Fresh, Honey Farms and XtraMart.
In February, Global Partners submitted a proposal to provide for the generation of about $1.5 billion in guaranteed revenue for MassDOT, according to court documents. The company said its proposal provided for approximately $900 million in guaranteed revenue “over and above” Applegreen’s proposal.
“For reasons unexplained,” MassDOT’s board awarded the project to Applegreen, Global Partners said in the court documents, filed in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.
Applegreen on Friday launched the website www.TellTheTruthGlobal.com, which the company said “highlights not only the inaccurate and disparaging statements that have been made about Applegreen, but all the ways in which Global has misrepresented its bid.”
Applegreen said comparison of the two financial offers “shows that when compared accurately in today’s dollars and including both capital expenses and rent, the difference between the two bids is $19 million dollars.”
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