With the new year will come a groundbreaking development sure to bolster the economy of the Colorado Springs area. Last month, Swire Coca-Cola, USA announced plans to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Colorado Springs. The future site, a 620,000-square-foot plant at the 1,600-acr e Peak Innovation Park — the 1,600-acre business park adjacent to the Colorado Springs Airport on the city’s southeast side — is the latest win for the Springs over Denver up north. Utah-based Swire dominates manufacturing, distribution and sales of Coca-Cola and other beverage brands in 13 states across western U.S.  It originally planned to build the bottling facility near Denver International Airport. But, as reported last month by The Gazette, Swire officials backed out of that plan in July due to “unforeseen delays and ongoing timeline instability.”  The plant, scheduled to open in 2028, will enable the company to consolidate and “modernize” its production operations by replacing Swire Coca-Cola USA’s 90-year-old production plant in Denver. The Mile High City’s loss is Olympic City’s USA’s gain, as it’s estimated the planned $475 million capital investment will create 170 local jobs. Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, president and chief executive of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Corporation (EDC), dubbed the news “one of the most significant manufacturing projects in our community in recent years.” “It is a powerful sign and a signal that we’re not just growing,” she continued, “but we are also competing and we are winning on a national scale.” Swire Coca Cola USA has experience both with Colorado and the Springs. The company has operated a smaller-scale, 145,000-square-foot distribution facility employing 170 people near the city’s airport since 2023. That familiarity led the company to determine the Springs “checked all the boxes for where we wanted to locate this” Swire Coca-Cola, USA Senior Vice President Bryan Sink said in the announcement. The boxes that Colorado Springs checks according to Sink? Proven partnerships, a highly skilled workforce and a strong sense of community made it the ideal location to establish the plant. It goes without saying a company with the gravity, history and standard of the Coca-Cola name spending a half-billion dollars in our backyard is a statement regarding the kind of long-term trust corporate powers have in the greater Colorado Springs area. As for the jobs the plant will provide, they’ll run the gamut from production, to maintenance, to quality control, logistics and management roles. The company is also claiming each on-site job will “support” two additional local jobs, that number approaching 350. And then there are the estimated 1,200 construction and installation jobs as part of the build that will generate $103 million in direct labor income for El Paso County locals. We echo Mayor Yemi Mobolade’s promise Coke is “betting on the right city.” When you parlay the project with the kind of heavyweights already calling the Peak Innovation business park home — Amazon, Frito-Lay, Northrop Grumman and The Aerospace Corporation — the city’s southeast side seems to truly be coming into its own. ...read more read less