PepsiCo. has chosen Denver as the place where it will build what will be its largest U.S. plant.
Colorado beat out three other states to become the site of the mammoth facility, Pepsi said in a statement Wednesday. The company acquired roughly 152 acres of land near Denver International Airport for the planned 1.2 million-square-foot manufacturing facility, which is set to open next year.
"We're thrilled to call Denver, a city that shares so many of our values, home to PepsiCo's most sustainable U.S. plant location,” said Johannes Evenblij, PepsiCo Beverages president of North America's West Division, in the statement.
In March, Denver City Council approved $1 million in incentives for Pepsi’s project. As Pepsi builds the facility and adds new jobs, the city will pay the company cash in installments. The city expects to make the payments over a multi-year period until the site is completed.
As part of the deal, Pepsi will move its longtime operation on Brighton Boulevard in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood to the new facility. The company says all 250 employees at the existing facility will be moved to the new site, and that they will create an additional 250 jobs — with an average wage of $65,000 — on top of that.
Denver officials estimate the project 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.
Denver Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca, the only council member to vote against the deal, contends the new facility is primarily a good deal for Pepsi.
“This was a good deal for a multinational corporation who needed a newer, larger space and got a city to relocate and essentially build a community around their needs,” CdeBaca said in a text message. “Denverites should be concerned about how their tax dollars were spent in this deal and how this city caters to corporate needs when it is small businesses struggling to survive.”
The old facility on Brighton Boulevard is in CdeBaca’s district.
