Mall food court or turnpike service plaza? How highway pit stops in Florida have changed
We love the turnpike service plaza.
It’s a place to get some coffee. Gas up. Grab a bite. Pick up some brochures to Florida attractions. Browse the souvenirs.
And, of course, take a potty pit stop.
If you’re on your way to Walt Disney World on Florida’s Turnpike, the service plazas are a big relief. They have toilets, food courts, gift shops, even a place to walk the dog.
The Fort Drum Service Plaza, which was expanded a few years ago, resembles a sprawling mall food court. A large, bright hall to stretch your legs, ringed with stores and fast-food windows, and filled with table after table to sip your coffee or chow down on a sandwich.
READ MORE: This is what Florida’s Turnpike looked like the day it opened in 1957
But the service plazas along the turnpike didn’t always look like this.
From the highway’s opening in the 1950s into the early ‘80s, the plazas featured vending machines (coffee and wax figurines) and a single cafeteria. The cafeteria, run by the Hot Shoppes chain, served eggs for breakfast, typically prepared in advance and dished out of a silver pan, and burgers and sandwiches and a hot dish. When the cafeteria was closed after hours, drivers could get their food and coffee from the vending machines.
The plaza landmark, seen by approaching cars, was a tall green pole that towered over the highway with an orange ball on top.
The plazas were rebuilt in the 1980s and the pole landmark disappeared. A typical new building featured a cramped hallway that stretched from the northbound parking lot to the southbound parking lot, with bathrooms at each end, stores on one side and two or three fast-food windows on the other with central seating areas.
Another redesign and expansion in the past few years brought new buildings to the plazas again. The updated versions have an open mall food court feel, with plenty of seating, and lots of windows and sunlight.
Let’s look back at some old photos and dip into the Miami Herald archives for articles that note some changes through the years at the turnpike plazas.
Face-lifts for the plazas
Published Oct. 20, 2010
Service plazas along Florida’s Turnpike from central Florida south to Miami-Dade County will be renovated starting Nov. 1 under a new $162-million project the Florida Department of Transportation awarded to the U.S. subsidiary of a Spanish multinational.
The project involves the overhaul of eight service plazas from Okahumpka in Sumter County north of Tampa to Snapper Creek in south Miami-Dade County. The turnpike is a toll road stretching over 312 miles and 11 counties that runs from Florida City in Miami-Dade to Wildwood in Sumter.
The project went to Areas USA, a Miami-based subsidiary of the Spanish firm Areas S.A., which last year took over a 30-year contract to manage turnpike plazas.
Motorists who travel on the turnpike will notice the first sign of service plaza reconstruction during the morning of Nov. 1 when the restaurants at the Pompano Beach service plaza in Broward will close until the fall of 2012, turnpike officials said.
The restaurant building at the Turkey Lake service plaza near Orlando also will close for reconstruction starting in the summer next year, turnpike officials said in a statement.
Turkey Lake and Pompano Beach are the only two service plazas that will close completely for the overhaul. Officials said all the other six service plazas will remain open during the renovation. All gas stations also will remain open and those at the service plazas where restaurant buildings will close will sell some food items and coffee, officials said in the statement.
Mark Beall, turnpike’s director of business development and concessions management, said the reason two plazas will close and the others won’t is because Pompano Beach and Turkey Lake largely draw commuters who stop for coffee or gas while the other plazas mainly serve long-distance travelers more likely to stop for a meal.
Areas took over management of the service plaza restaurant buildings last year, the first change in service plaza management since HMSHost got a turnpike contract in the late 1980s.
Bye-bye, Starbucks
Published June 3, 2009
After years of sipping cappuccinos at Starbucks and wolfing Whoppers at Burger King, travelers on Florida’s Turnpike will be dunking Dunkin’ Donuts and pounding Cheeburger Cheeburgers at service plazas along the toll road.
Areas USA, a Miami-based subsidiary of the Spanish Areas S.A., this week takes over a 30-year contract to manage turnpike plazas from Okahumpka in north-central Florida to Snapper Creek in South Miami-Dade.
This is the first change of service plaza management in two decades, since HMSHost secured the turnpike contract in the late 1980s.
Areas USA, a highway and airport food and retail service provider, expects to invest more than $180 million in renovations and sales exceeding $4.5 billion over the length of the contract, company officials said.
HMSHost confirmed it lost the contract to Areas USA and thanked the more than 775 employees at service plazas for their services. Turnpike officials said they preferred to release information Wednesday at separate news events at the Pompano and Turkey Lake service plazas.
While Areas USA will take over the plazas, and familiar concessions like Starbucks and Burger King will be gone, the changeover to new outlets and renovation of plazas will be gradual.
Xavier Rabell, Areas USA chief executive officer, told The Miami Herald that renovation will not begin until 2010. Nevertheless, motorists stopping at the plazas will notice immediate changes with temporary locations for new concessions at all eight plazas that span the length of the road from Wildwood to Florida City.
New vendors include Vicky Bakery, a Hialeah-based bakery, Checkers, KFC, Taco Bell, Nature’s Table, Chicken Kitchen, Villa Pizza, Earl of Sandwich and Panda Express -- among others.
“It’s a significant, important change,” Rabell said.
Though the company manages highway service plazas in other countries, this is the first time it will manage service plazas on a U.S. highway.
Areas also manages retail and food outlet sites at various major airports in the United States, including terminals at Miami International, Orlando International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and Boston Logan International.
All eight service plazas on Florida’s Turnpike will be taken over by the Miami-based subsidiary of a Spanish multinational, Areas USA, starting Wednesday.
No gum
Published Oct. 28, 1989
Nowhere on the road’s 309 miles is chewing gum sold. And especially not in the snappy new rest stations that dot the pike from Snapper Creek to Pompano Beach to Wildwood.
“So many times, the gum winds up on the sidewalk, on the floors, under the tables, in the carpet,” said Jim Butch, manager of the Lake Worth rest station. “That’s the reason.”
The station is one of eight in the state designed in theme colors and neon by the au courant Miami architectural firm Arquitectonica.
Inside the airy stations, it is possible to purchase gum drops, goobers, jelly beans and ju ju fruits, as well as flesh- colored adhesive bandages, but not plain old gum.
“If you traveled the turnpike before we opened the new stations, you noticed on the front of the service areas all the blotches? That was gum. Baked on,” Butch said. “If you travel the turnpike now, it’s OK.”
The stations opened over the Labor Day weekend. But the gum rule predates them, having been in effect two years, ever since the Marriott corporation assumed control of turnpike restaurants and rest stations.
Not everyone has digested the glum news. Yet.
“I didn’t know there was such a rule,” said Doug Cox, who supervised the construction of the new rest stations for the Florida Department of Transportation.
“I never heard you couldn’t buy gum at the service plazas,” said Lt. Phil Moan, Florida Highway Patrol, Turnpike division. Moan stocks his cruiser’s glove compartment with gum and packs his own when he goes to Palm Beach International Airport, which -- like Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International -- has also banned the sticky stuff.
“I’m going to have to become a gumshoe on this,” he said, “and stick to it.”
New Snapper Creek plaza
Published April 13, 1989
The Snapper Creek Service Plaza, which for the past eight years has been nothing more than a gas station in the middle of the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike, will open for business in July with two new restaurants.
Dunkin Donuts and Roy Rogers will be housed in buildings designed by the Miami firm Arquitectonica. The plaza, between the Kendall Drive and 152nd Street exits, will be run by the Marriott Corp., which is paying for the renovation.
“All of this is costing the taxpayers nothing,” said Josi Maki, spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation. In addition to the restaurants, the new plaza will have indoor and outdoor dining rooms, six vending machines and four video games, Maki said.
There also will be a tourist information center and space has been reserved for automatic teller machines.
Martin Wander, vice president of Arquitectonica, said, “We want to people who go there to understand they’re in South Florida and we want them to remember it.”
The Snapper Creek Service Plaza hasn’t offered much service, other than gasoline, since July 1980. That’s when the restaurant there closed and the Florida Highway Patrol moved its Miami District Office into the vacant building.
The face lift at Snapper Creek will cost $3.4 million and is part of a $28 million project to renovate all eight service plazas on the turnpike.
Marriott will pay the state $6 million each year and 14 percent to 18 percent of its gross sales for the rights to operate the eight service plazas on the turnpike.
Revamped plazas
Published April 6, 1989
When Rich Trevisan pulled off Florida’s Turnpike after a recent trip, he was steamed.
The old service plazas, excluding the gas stations, had been destroyed and new ones were under construction. Trevisan said that’s not how he wants his tax dollars spent.
“I’m going to write the governor,” the Martin County resident vowed. He wanted an explanation.
The explanation: Tax dollars aren’t paying for the new plazas. Marriott Corp. is.
The state Department of Transportation signed a contract with Marriott late last year to operate the service plazas for the next 15 years. At the end of 15 years, Marriott has an option to run the plazas for another five years.
As part of its bid, Marriott offered to spend a minimum of $28 million dollars to upgrade eight service plazas. The company opted to improve the facilities by tearing down the old plazas, built by the DOT in the 1950s, and building new ones.
DOT officials say the department’s budget shortfall had no bearing on the deal struck with Marriott.
“We didn’t have a cash crunch at that time, so I don’t think it was a consideration,” said Doug Cox, DOT’s manager overseeing the plaza construction.
The DOT told Marriott to build the new plazas quickly. Cox said Marriott contractors broke ground on Jan. 4. The work should be finished in July.
“It was a DOT decision not to inconvenience the public any more than we had to,” Cox said. While the construction is in progress, Marriott has put portable restrooms, vending machines and food stands at the sites.
DOT and Marriott officials say turnpike travelers will be in for a welcome change when the new plazas open. The old restaurants -- known for expensive and unappetizing food -- have been canned.
National food chains — Burger King, Roy Rogers, Popeye’s, Sbarros, Dunkin’ Donuts, Mrs. Field’s Cookies, Bob’s Big Boy, and Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs — will operate in the new plazas. Along with the restaurants, bathrooms, vending machines and game rooms, automatic teller machines also will be included in most of the new plazas, said Marriott spokeswoman Jenny Levendusky.
Marriott operates more than 100 restaurants on 14 highway systems, Levendusky said. The company also paid for the capital improvements of facilities on the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes, she said.
Besides having the capital to make the improvements, Levendusky said, “It’s something we feel we have an expertise in.” Marriott has an architectural and construction department.
Levendusky would not say how much Marriott expects to make from the service plazas. But she said, “We think it will be very successful, absolutely.”
Marriott has guaranteed the DOT a minimum of $6 million a year while it is operating the plazas. If the company opts to operate the plazas for 20 years, the DOT stands to gain a minimum of $120 million from the arrangement.
“Maybe I don’t have to write that letter,” Trevisan said when he heard who was paying for the new service plazas. “Maybe it wasn’t such a bad deal after all.”
What’s new:
The Marriott Corp. plans the following restaurants at the new service plazas:
Okahumpka: Popeye’s and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Turkey Lake: Roy Rogers and Sbarros.
Canoe Creek: Burger King, Popeye’s and Mrs. Field’s Cookies.
Fort Drum: Roy Rogers, Bob’s Big Boy and Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs.
Fort Pierce: Burger King, Sbarros and Mrs. Field’s Cookies.
West Palm Beach/Lake Worth: Roy Rogers, Bob’s Big Boy and Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs.
Pompano Beach: Sbarros, Popeye’s and Mrs. Field’s Cookies.
Snapper Creek: Roy Rogers and Dunkin’ Donuts.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 7:26 AM.
