The losing bidder for a contract to run the state’s 18 highway service plazas says that recently released text exchanges show that the decision to award a 35-year lease to a foreign company was tainted by glaring conflicts of interest.
In a letter sent by Waltham-based Global Partners to MassDOT’s board of directors, Global Chief Legal Officer Sean Geary writes that information received by the company following a public records request shows that the board’s June selection of Dublin-based Applegreen as their service plaza operator was “compromised by prohibited ex parte communications and undisclosed conflicts of interest.”
“Proceeding with Applegreen would not only cost the Commonwealth nearly $900 million in guaranteed rent, but it would also knowingly ratify a process that we believe violates both the ITP and the Conflict of Interest Law,” Geary wrote.
According to Geary, text messages between Scott Bosworth, the head of the MassDOT’s bid selection committee, and “Applegreen’s owner, Blackstone Infrastructure Partners (via Applegreen Board Member Kurt Summers), executives of Suffolk Construction (a key member of Applegreen’s Team), and Applegreen’s registered lobbyist” demonstrate a much cozier relationship than is allowed under the bidding process rules.
The conversations, Global alleges in their letter, amount to “repeated impermissible contact” between Bosworth and the winning bidder, and show that Applegreen and its construction contractor “enjoyed a direct line to the Head of the Selection Committee during every stage of the process.”
“Mr. Bosworth’s personal communications with Applegreen’s team repeatedly aligned with the most consequential moments of the procurement,” Geary wrote.
In a separate statement, Global Partners said that the entire process of selecting Applegreen was “compromised from the inside” of MassDOT and the content of the revealed text messages “validate why we have been fighting from the start.”
“We’ll continue to fight because we, and every Massachusetts taxpayer, deserve better from our government. While MassDOT didn’t follow their own rules before, now would be a good time to start, by disqualifying Applegreen under the rules of the RFP,” a company spokesperson told the Herald.
But Applegreen spokesperson Diana Pisciotta said the recently released text messages actually demonstrate that there was nothing untoward going on between Bosworth and any party involved in the request for proposal process.
“None of the released messages were related to the RFP or otherwise in violation of the restriction on ex parte communications regarding the RFP,” she said.
Applegreen president Bob Etchingham has called Global’s efforts to undo his company’s winning bid “a publicity campaign built on misinformation and distorted facts.” Etchingham said that his company stands by their bid.
“As the only team with the experience, investment, achievable financial projections and ability to execute on the Commonwealth’s goals, we stand behind our bid and the released documents reinforce that position,” he said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Suffolk Construction, the Boston-based firm which Applegreen has selected to reconstruct several of the service plazas, also pushed back. Conversations between Bosworth and Suffolk CEO John Fish, they said, represent nothing more than an ongoing relationship between the construction company and the state.
“Communication between Suffolk and MassDOT officials included standard, congenial conversation consistent with a company that delivers many large-scale, complex construction projects throughout the Commonwealth. The communications contain no material or content that would have had an impact on the MassDOT Selection Committee’s independent decision,” the spokesperson told the Herald.
“It is unfortunate that despite the release of thousands of pages of documents, a detailed post-award debrief, and an independent review by the MassDOT Office of the Inspector General, the losing bidder continues to fabricate a narrative aimed at distracting from the real issue: we need better rest stops now,” they continued.
Paula Chirhart, a spokesperson for Applegreen’s majority stakeholder, Blackstone, offered a similar assessment of the text exchanges released by MassDOT, suggesting the only thing they show is professionals communicating with respect.
“There is absolutely nothing in the thousands of public documents recounting the bidding process that suggests anything to the contrary. Our team was awarded this contract because of our bold vision to reimagine Massachusetts’ travel plazas, and our long-track record as a leading global hospitality provider,” they told the Herald.
A MassDOT spokesperson told the Herald that Applegreen’s bid was selected because it received the highest scores from members of the selection committee and that, even if allegations against Bosworth had merit and his score were removed from consideration, Applegreen would still have the highest scoring bid. The selection committee, according to MassDOT, considered much more than the amount of rent they would make from the bidders.
“Applegreen won the bid through a fair procurement process that followed industry standards and carefully analyzed every proposer’s plans for revitalizing, operating and maintaining service plazas on the state’s highways. Applegreen’s 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 and will result in all service plazas being renovated on a faster timeline than any other bidder,” they said.
Applegreen is supposed to submit a Lease and Concessions Agreement to MassDOT by Nov. 3, and is scheduled to take over maintenance and operations at the state’s service plazas when that agreement goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.