Global Partners is on the offensive after the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) on June 18 awarded Applegreen the rights to a massive travel plaza project, saying it is pushing for a formal oversight hearing to get answers from MassDOT.
The company wants “transparency of the process and are looking for a more fair RFP (request-for-proposal) process”—and is calling on Gov. Maura Healey to intervene, Reid Lamberty, senior communications advisor at Waltham, Massachusetts-based Global Partners, which owns Alltown Fresh and other convenience-store chains, told CSP.
Applegreen will be investing more than $750 million in the project, according to the Dublin-based company’s website.
“We don’t know at this point if the final lease has been signed,” Lamberty said. “To our knowledge it has not been. I think at this point it really is up to Gov. Maura Healey. The ball is effectively in her court as she would be the one who makes any decision to potentially overturn this.”
He added, “It would be a decision she would have to make as far as we understand it,” and that “time is of the essence” because construction in scheduled to begin in about five or six months.
“When we look at the MassDOT process, they used a rare and unusually secretive RFP (request for proposal) process that really did lack transparency,” Lamberty said. “It lacked limited recourse for us, and it really did keep both the public and its own board in in the dark. We were notified of our rejection before the committee even met, so it raises serious questions about whether this process was predetermined rather than fair or deliberative.”
MassDOT on June 18 awarded Applegreen a 35-year lease to raze and rebuild nine rest stops and refurbish nine others across Massachusetts.
- Global Partners is No. 25 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count. Applegreen PLC is No. 47.
Lamberty said Global Partners is doing messaging asking for transparency and trying to get the public engaged. In addition to posts on its LinkedIn page and radio ads that begin July 23, Global Partners has set up an online petition that includes the following:
“MassDOT recently awarded a 35-year, billion-dollar lease to Applegreen, a foreign, majority private equity-backed company, over a Massachusetts-based, family-owned business that proposed significantly more guaranteed revenue for the state. This decision was made without sharing a public side-by-side comparison of the two final bids. Critical financial information presented to the MassDOT board has since changed, and legitimate concerns have been raised about the integrity and objectivity of the evaluation process.”
“Global Partners’ bid includes guaranteed rent of $1.5 billion over 35 years,” Lamberty said. “It’s guaranteed, so that means if in 20 years, no one is going into the gas stations, no one is using your service plazas, buying anything, buying gas, using EV, we still pay the state. It’s guaranteed rent. Applegreen’s is variable.”
‘We just want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence to keep the public informed, to make them aware of the decision that was made.’
He added, “What we want, from day one, is to show both bids side by side. Let's put them out there. Let’s look at the numbers and let everyone see the numbers and do a side-by-side comparison.”
MassDOT Response
A MassDOT spokesperson told CSP that the process followed national best practices for large-scale public procurements.
“Here, the Selection Committee, aided by outside experts in financial analysis, procurement law and other areas, met over the course of 16 months and then deliberated for over 20 hours on comparing the finalists’ proposals; each Selection Committee member provided a score for the evaluation criteria, which were tabulated at the end of the process.”
The procurement method for this selection was based on a number of important criteria designed to deliver the best overall value for the commonwealth, the spokesperson continued. Similar to MassDOT’s design-build contracts, “this approach weighed the bid price alongside critical factors like technical quality, schedule and long-term performance to ensure the best public outcome. The selected firm was chosen because it was determined to be able to best deliver the project based on a comprehensive scoring across all criteria.”
Applegreen was selected through a comprehensive evaluation process that considered investment, design quality, operational readiness and performance guarantees, the spokesperson added.
“Their proposal included a full turnkey plan—from design and construction to staffing and operations— which closely aligned with MassDOT’s technical requirements and timeline expectations.”
Finally, the spokesperson said, MassDOT’s financial expert KPMG reviewed the financial section of the submissions and made adjustments to ensure an accurate comparison.
“Under this analysis, Global’s rent revenue was projected to be $375 million more based on the difference in Year 1 revenue over the life of the lease. In contrast, Global offered $250 million less in capital investment. The total difference was $125 million, not $900 million. Additionally, revenue was just one piece of the selection criteria (25%).”
Payment Structure
A page on Global Partners’ website titled “Massachusetts Deserves Better” said the Applegreen contract offers “a variable payment structure that—at best—could yield $994 million. At worst? The state walks away with $623 million. The minimum gap is $517 million. The potential loss to taxpayers: nearly $900 million.”
It continues: “The capital investment that MassDOT is hanging their hat on is based on ESTIMATED numbers and represents an estimated difference of $101 million. Meaning Global plans to invest $649 million and Applegreen plans $750 million (estimated and by Applegreen’s own admission 'subject to change').”
It adds, “Global offered a superior commitment to supplier diversity, 5% of contract value, with a goal of 15%. Applegreen offered the bare minimum of just 2%.”
“We just want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence to keep the public informed, to make them aware of the decision that was made,” Lamberty said. “We truly believe that it was the wrong decision, and we are hoping to put some pressure on that, maybe, this can be reviewed and we can take a look at the bids again.”
Global Partners does “not have travel plazas ourselves, however, in Massachusetts, we operate the convenience stores at all 11 service plazas along the Massachusetts Turnpike as a subtenant of McDonald’s. At these locations, we also manage the fuel operations on behalf of Gulf as their agent.”
“In addition, we are the master tenant at four other MassDOT service plaza locations: in Beverly, Barnstable and two in Bridgewater,” Lamberty continued. “We took over these sites in 2017 after the prior operator went bankrupt and the state was looking for a reliable partner to keep them running. The lease term was short, less than 10 years, which made it difficult to justify major capital investments, but we stepped in to ensure continuous service for the public.”
In Connecticut, Global Partners operates the convenience store and fuel operations at all 23 service plazas statewide, and is a subtenant of the primary operator of these locations, Lamberty said.
“Altogether, we have operations at 38 service plaza locations across Massachusetts and Connecticut, with a strong regional network and deep operational expertise in this space,” he said. “In addition, we have more than 225 additional company-operated fuel and convenience-store locations throughout New England. Those include the industry-disrupting Alltown Fresh Concept, and the new Honey Farms Market.”
CSP has reached out to Applegreen for comment.
Global Partners owns, leases or supplies 1,584 gas stations and convenience stores under multiple brands, including Alltown Fresh, Honey Farms, Jiffy Mart and XtraMart.
Applegreen, the holding company of Petrogas Group U.S. Inc., Plainview, New York, made its U.S. debut in 2014 after opening its first sites in New York state. It made its Top 202 debut in 2019 after a series of acquisitions increased its store count. The U.S. business includes sites in the North, Midwest and Southeast under the Shell, Exxon, Mobil, Sunoco, BP, Chevron, Holiday, Freedom and Speedway fuel brands. It has about 240 stores in the United States as of year-end 2024.
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