Apparently, it’s not sufficient for an funding large like Blackstone to rake in tens of millions by flipping skyscrapers like pancakes—now they’re beginning to gather the free change in your pocket if you cease for a cup of Joe at a freeway relaxation cease.
Blackstone Infrastructure Companions acquired a majority stake within the Irish gasoline station and comfort retailer chain Applegreen on the finish of 2020 when Applegreen went non-public in an $878M deal that left the Dublin-based firm’s founders with a 41% share.
Shortly after the deal closed, Applegreen was in a position to leverage its monetary backing from Blackstone to submit the successful bid for a high-profile contract to function 27 relaxation stops on the NY State Thruway. Some huge bucks had been have to seal the successful deal: Applegreen and its companions are selecting up your entire tab for a $450M redevelopment of the remaining stops on NY’s major transportation artery.
In return, the corporate acquired a 33-year lease to function meals retailers in addition to its comfort shops on the relaxation stops. The reworking started firstly of final yr and is predicted be accomplished by subsequent yr.
In keeping with a report within the NY Occasions, the corporate is modernizing the remaining stops into spacious constructions with two-story-high glass entrances, a number of communal area and indoor shrubbery. Foods and drinks choices on the redesigned relaxation stops are emphasizing native artisan-type merchandise introduced beneath a slogan shouted in two-foot excessive letters on the partitions: “EAT LOCAL. DRINK LOCAL. TASTE NEW YORK.”
In different phrases, in case you’re craving a Huge Mac in your trek up the Thruway—FUHGEDDABOUDIT.
That’s proper, McDonald’s has been banished from NY Thruway relaxation stops. All the McDonald’s retailers on the Thruway had been closed on Dec. 31, when the fast-food chain’s contract with the NY State Thruway Authority expired.
In keeping with the Occasions report, the redevelopment undertaking was the results of a survey of greater than 2,600 drivers carried out by the Thruway Authority 5 years in the past, which the authority says revealed that greater than half needed “native artisan” choices in “meals halls.” Respondents additionally complained about unappealing interiors on the relaxation stops, which had been mentioned to supply few “Instagrammable moments,” the report mentioned.
No one requested these motorists in the event that they needed to fireside the toll collectors on the Thruway and change them with digital tolls, however that’s a finished deal. Now everyone has extra free change to spend on the relaxation stops.
The redesigned relaxation stops received’t be fully bereft of quick meals—Chick-fil-A and Shake Shack might be there—however the emphasis is on native farm stands and different artisan-type choices in a modernized venue.
The Occasions article spewed lots of ink waxing nostalgically in regards to the lack of what it referred to as the “egalitarian, socially equalizing expertise” of scarfing down McDonald’s—and Howard Johnson’s earlier than it—at dingy freeway pit stops.
This from a newspaper that lined the travails of normal individuals firstly of the pandemic by publishing a front-page characteristic about how all of the common individuals in New York Metropolis had been have a very tough time “adjusting” to dwelling of their second houses within the Hamptons after they abandoned NYC.
