Coca-Cola and Pepsi will expand their long-standing cola rivalry to two major bottling plants outside Denver International Airport.
Swire Coca-Cola, a Utah-based Coca-Cola manufacturer and distributor, plans to build a 53,000-square-foot bottling plant at the northeast corner of Tower Road and Peña Boulevard on the airport’s Second Creek Campus, the Denver Business Journal reported.
PepsiCo, based in New York state, is building a 110,000-square-foot Pepsi bottling plant three miles south of the Coca-Cola plant, southeast of East 72nd Avenue and the corner of Argonne. The company’s largest soda plant in North America is scheduled to open next summer.
The new production facilities for Coca-Cola and Pepsi represent a major expansion of bottling and storage capacity at Denver Airport, located about 40 kilometers northeast of downtown.
In April, the Denver City Council approved a 97-acre, 75-year lease with Swire Infrastructure worth nearly $271 million that will allow Swire Coca-Cola to build the plastic and aluminum bottling plant.
The agreement gives Swire the right of first refusal for an additional 30 acres and three options to extend the lease for eight years each. The company expects to invest between $350 million and $500 million in the project.
Construction of the production facility and warehouse is scheduled to begin early next year.
Swire Coca-Cola manufactures and distributes Coca-Cola products in 13 states, including Colorado, Arizona, California, Kansas, Wyoming and New Mexico.
It is unclear whether the new Swire plant will replace the U.S. manufacturing plant at East 40th Avenue and York Street in north Denver.
PepsiCo has begun construction on its mega bottling plant near the airport, which the Business Journal says will triple the capacity of its manufacturing facility north of downtown Denver. The facility will feature the company’s largest solar panel array.
The company received approval to build the new plant on 152 acres in 2022, with $1 million in incentives from the city of Denver. PepsiCo purchased the land in July 2022 for $49.16 million, or $323,421 per acre.
— Dana Bartholomew
Read more
LBA pays $41 million for warehouse leased from Amazon near Denver
AvalonBay buys apartment complex south of Denver for $95 million
Tourmaline Capital buys shopping center east of Denver for $58 million
