Denver committee approves $1M incentive investment in proposed Pepsi facility
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Denver may soon call itself home to a new Pepsi manufacturing site.
Denver City Council’s Business, Arts, Workforce & Aviation Services Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a $1 million Business Incentive Fund contract with Bottling Group LLC, an operating subsidiary of Pepsi. The corporation intends to build a $400 million state of the art manufacturing facility in the High Point region of northeast Denver.
Deborah Cameron, chief business development officer with Denver’s Office of Economic Development and Opportunity, said the company intends to incorporate “the most forward-thinking and leading technologies and sustainability concepts seen globally” in advanced beverage production.
“Pepsi staff and others will come from across the globe to see this facility, and they’ll likely stay in hotels and support businesses located close to the facility,” Cameron said.
Should entitlements, rezoning and site planning with the city all go as planned, Pepsi will gradually move its operations on Brighton Boulevard to the new facility. The company said it has outgrown the Brighton Boulevard site. The 250 employees at that site will retain their jobs and the new facility will create about 225 new jobs. Cameron said the average wage for these jobs will be $65,000 a year plus benefits.
“I can remember when the city lost a lot of our hospitals to neighboring counties, and to be able to keep one of these important economic engines in our city is really, really important and looking at wages that people make is also important,” Councilwoman Deborah Ortega said.
She added: “I’m just excited to see that Pepsi has made this commitment to keep this plant in Denver and happy to support the $1 million investment.”
Council President Stacie Gilmore said this is a great opportunity for workforce development in northeast Denver.
“The large-scale workforce areas are few and far in the northeast region, especially in Denver proper,” Gilmore said. “We’ve got Denver International Airport, but beyond that this is going to be transformational for the entire area out there.”
Denver’s Business Incentive Fund exists so the city can support business relocation or expansion within Denver. Funding is distributed based on performance, and projects are evaluated based on their creation/retention of quality jobs, demonstrated alignment with the city’s economic development goals, direct fiscal benefit to the city and values of equity and inclusion.
Pepsi would receive $1 million from the city once it has established the facility and shown the creation and retention of jobs. City Council is only required to review Business Incentive Fund contracts over $500,000.
The city estimates that if this project goes through and is developed, it could bring $6 million in additional revenue to the city’s general fund over a five-year period and $11 million over a 10-year period.
Pepsi representatives estimated that if everything goes as planned, construction could start late this year and lead to a 2024 opening.