Losing bidder Global Partners has ratcheted up the pressure on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation as it tries to win a lucrative highway plaza redevelopment job, by asking a judge to block MassDOT from going ahead with the winning bidder.
On Monday, Waltham-based Global amended an existing lawsuit against MassDOT over the service-plaza award, essentially switching gears from focusing on public records requests regarding the bidding process to trying to overturn the MassDOT award to a rival bidder, Irish retailer Applegreen.
Global says in its amended complaint that newly unearthed messages between a MassDOT official and executives at Applegreen’s construction contractor, Suffolk Construction, should disqualify Applegreen and Suffolk from winning the bid to redo the state’s 18 highway plazas. In particular, Global focuses on the friendly and familiar tone of the text messages it obtained through its public records requests.
The request from Global asks a judge to stop MassDOT from executing the redevelopment lease with Applegreen and to award the lease to Global instead, as the next highest-scoring short-listed bidder. MassDOT had put out its initial request for proposals last year to redevelop the plazas, and drew interest from a half-dozen bidders, with the final competition coming down to Applegreen and Global this past spring.
Applegreen and Suffolk on Monday responded with statements denying there was anything improper in the bidding process.
“If you look carefully at the messages, there was no communication regarding the RFP, the lease, or the procurement process that would have violated the rules set out by MassDOT,” Applegreen spokesperson Diana Pisciotta said.
Suffolk Construction said the award to Applegreen was based on the strength of its proposal, and that the messages “between Suffolk and MassDOT officials included standard, congenial conversation” that’s consistent with a construction company behind many large-scale projects across the state. Suffolk accused Global of continuing to “fabricate a narrative” aimed at distracting from the real issue: the state’s need for improved rest stops.
Global’s latest filings in Suffolk Superior Court, before Judge Christopher Barry-Smith, occurred on the same day that state Senator Mark Montigny announced that the legislative committee he leads, the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, would conduct an oversight hearing on Sept. 24 to discuss this procurement process.
Montigny, in a statement, said that given the long-term nature of the lease, the significant public funds involved, and the “very legitimate concerns” raised by Global, his committee will demand “nothing less than full transparency” from those involved in the bidding.
Global has waged public relations, government relations, and legal battles to try to overturn the MassDOT award, ever since Applegreen was picked for the job in June. Its primary argument: that the Global bid is far superior and would have offered hundreds of millions of dollars more to the state over the new lease’s 35 years. (Global currently runs the gas stations and convenience stores at the 11 Mass. Pike plazas, as a subtenant of McDonald’s and Gulf, and operates the services outright at four other plazas.)
A MassDOT spokesperson said Applegreen won the bid “through a fair procurement process that followed industry standards.” The agency spokesperson added that Applegreen’s proposal closely aligned with MassDOT’s technical requirements and timeline expectations, with a faster turnaround than any other bidder.
The two bidding teams disagree about how much money their respective bids would bring to the state. But an analysis by KPMG, an adviser to MassDOT in the process, shows Global’s bid would bring $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion to the state in revenue over the life of the contract, compared with $623 million to $994 million for Applegreen’s bid.
However, Applegreen would invest $750 million in capital improvements, including full replacements of nine of the 18 service-plaza projects, while Global would invest just over $500 million, per KPMG’s analysis. (Global says this comparison is misleading because the cap-ex numbers that KPMG relied on were preliminary estimates.)
Applegreen, which is backed by private equity firm Blackstone, has pledged to start its construction work on the rest areas in early 2026 and complete the work over a three-year period. It’s unclear how the latest courthouse and State House activity will affect those timelines.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.