New Jersey Rest Stops to Get $250M Food & Fuel Makeover

TRENTON, N.J. — Rest stops along the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway are heading for a $250 million revamp.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, HMS Host and Sunoco LP have reached an agreement to enhance and improve the food and service areas along the toll roads. Under the terms of the pact, HMS Host and Sunoco will invest more than $250 million in capital improvements to the service area buildings.

In exchange, the state will extend its contracts to operate the fuel and food concessions on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway for the next 25 years. 

Gov. Chris Christie called the announcement "well overdue."

Noting that the rest stop and their facilities are often travelers' first impression of New Jersey, Christie said most of the areas were built in the 1950s, particularly those long the New Jersey Turnpike, and need to be modernized to today's standards.

"Most of these facilities look old and outdated and they look old and outdated because they are old and outdated," he said during a visit at a rest stop in Monmouth County on Aug. 30.

For its part, HMS Host will invest in 15 service area restaurant facilities and construct nine new restaurant buildings — at a cost between $10 and $15 million each — in addition to refurbishing six other buildings, at an average cost of around $4 million each, according to the governor.

Major remodeling efforts will include the removal of the front of the buildings; new open natural-lighted dining areas; and new restrooms. 

According to Christie, newly remodeled buildings will look and operate similarly to some of the newer buildings along the roadways, like the Grover Cleveland and the Atlantic Plaza rest areas. 

"This agreement will provide drivers with the safest, cleanest, most modern highway rest stops up and down the Turnpike and Parkway without spending any of their tax or their toll dollars to get it done while continuing to ensure that New Jersey has the most affordable fuel in the region for the next few decades," Christie said.

"This is a once in a generation opportunity to do a public/private partnership in the cause of replacing aging service area facilities, as old as the toll roads themselves, with newer ones that quite frankly — the public needs and deserves," he added.