WALL -- Sixteen of the rest stops that dot the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway will either be replaced or refurbished over the next few years, Gov. Chris Christie announced Wednesday.

Christie said neither taxpayer funds nor toll money will be used to pay for the $250 million price tag of the construction.

Instead, the Republican governor announced, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority has reached agreements with a pair of private companies -- HMSHost and Sunoco -- to fund the projects in exchange for new contracts to keep operating the food and fuel concessions there for the next 25 years.

Christie said for a lot of people visiting New Jersey for the first time, their "first impression" of the state is "a rest stop on the Turnpike or Parkway."

And while some buildings were renovated a decade or so ago, Christie noted the facilities covered under this agreement were built in the 1950s and need to be "modernized to present-day standards."

"Most of these facilities look old and outdated, and they look old and outdated because they are old and outdated," the governor said at a news conference in the parking lot of the Parkway's Monmouth Service Area near Exit 100 in Wall -- one of the facilities that will be renovated.

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

Christie said all the work should be done by 2024 but many could be finished before that. He said the projects will be staggered so not all are closed at the same time.

Under the deal:

* HMSHost will replace the buildings at the following Turnpike rest stops: Vince Lombardi, in Ridgefield; Thomas Edison in Woodbridge; Joyce Kilmer in East Brunswick; Walt Whitman in Cherry Hill; and Clara Barton and John Fenwick, both in Oldhams. The company will also replace the Forked River and Monmouth service area buildings on the Garden State Parkway.

The new buildings will be 138,000 square feet and will cost between $10 million and $15 million each.

* The company also agreed spend $26.4 million to remodel a number of Turnpike and service area buildings. The Turnpike buildings include: Woodrow Wilson and Richard Hamilton, both in Hamilton; Molly Pitcher in Cranbury; and James Fenimore Cooper in Mount Laurel. The Parkway buildings are at the Cheesequake and Montvale service areas.

Much of that work will involve construction of open, natural-light dining areas and new restroom facilities -- similar to the recently rebuild Grover Cleveland rest stop on the Turnpike, Christie said.

* Sunoco agreed to fund $90 million worth of improvements to 21 fueling facilities on the Turnpike and Parkway and to remodel its convenience stores. The company also agreed to build new convenience stores at the Brookdale North service area on the Parkway in Essex County and the Alexander Hamilton service area on the Turnpike in Hudson County.

* Christie's office said "if feasible," Sunoco will build a new fuel facility and convenience store along the eastbound Newark Bay-Hudson County Extension of the Turnpike.

The first ones scheduled to be replaced are the Thomas Edison and Monmouth facilities, which are expected to be finished by 2019.

The agreement still needs to be approved by the NJTA Board of Commissioners. The panel is expected to vote this month, Christie's office said.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.