Maine could get its first Shake Shack restaurant as the Maine Turnpike Authority renegotiates its service plaza contract to upgrade facilities and dining options at five commercial rest stops along the toll highway from Kittery to Augusta.

Turnpike officials also want to add Chick-fil-A to the mix of plaza restaurants and showcase local chefs and food products among expanded dining options. Maine has two Chick-fil-A restaurants, in Westbrook and Bangor, with a third franchise proposed in Auburn.

Other plans include renovating plaza bathrooms and other facilities, featuring Maine-made items in plaza convenience stores and adding indoor and outdoor play areas for children, said MTA Executive Director Andre Briere.

“I want kids in the back seat screaming that they want to stop because they had such a good time last time,” Briere said. “I want our service plazas to be destination options for all travelers through our state.”

Briere, who joined the authority in April, said Thursday that he has reopened the turnpike’s 30-year contract with Applegreen Ltd., a Dublin-based company that operates over 600 service plazas across Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Applegreen has contractual relationships with Chick-fil-A and Shake Shack as premier brands among 15 fast-food companies that are located in its U.S. plazas, he said.

“Bringing in those premier brands is the main objective,” Briere said. “My intention is to get at least one of each.”

Briere said he believes the 18-year-old agreement can be renegotiated to benefit the turnpike and travelers, based on his experience with service plaza contracts in his previous job as deputy commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.

As currently written, the contract generates about $5 million annually for the authority, but it lacks guarantees for contractor reinvestment, innovation and upgrades in the facilities, which have been flagging, Briere said. As a result, both the turnpike and Applegreen have been losing money, he said.

“It’s a small amount of our overall revenue stream,” Briere said, “but our service plazas are an outsized reflection of the turnpike experience to the traveling public.”

The turnpike collected $170 million in tolls last year to fund 89% of its budget, which uses no tax revenue. Briere said the authority likely would receive a smaller percentage of service plaza revenue, but the facilities and offerings for travelers would improve greatly and overall plaza revenue would increase.

Applegreen purchased the Maine Turnpike’s service plaza contract in 2021, Briere said. C.N. Brown, based in South Paris, holds a separate contract for fuel sold at the service plazas and is not involved in ongoing negotiations, he said.

Applegreen also operates service plazas in Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Carolina. In Massachusetts, the company partnered with the Department of Transportation to renovate and operate 18 service plazas across the state, according to Applegreen’s website.

A spokesman for Applegreen said via email that it was too early in the process to speculate about which brands could be included in the dining upgrade.

Representatives of Shake Shack and Chick-fil-A didn’t respond to requests for interviews or written statements.

Briere said Chick-fil-A, a fried chicken sandwich chain based in Georgia, and Shake Shack, a hamburger chain based in New York City, would open in turnpike plazas as early as 2027, but exactly how many and where is unknown. One likely location is in Kennebunk, he said, where service plazas flank the turnpike. Other service plazas are in Cumberland, Gray and West Gardiner.

Turnpike dining options now include Burger King, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Dunkin’ and Sbarro Pizza.