Jun. 20—Pepsi is getting a new state-of-the-art distribution facility in Colorado Springs whose electric-powered forklifts, electric infrastructure, potential solar paneled roof and other enhancements will be part of a long-term, companywide sustainability initiative.
PepsiCo Beverages North America on Tuesday broke ground on a 115,000-square-foot warehouse on 12 acres northwest of Aviation Way and Newport Road, along Powers Boulevard on the city's southeast side and near the Colorado Springs Airport.
The facility, from which Pepsi will deliver its products to groceries, convenience stores, restaurants, sports venues, schools, hospitals and any place where the soft drink is sold in Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Cañon City, Monument and nearby areas, will open in early to mid-2024.
It will replace Pepsi's decades-long warehouse on Stone Avenue, off Fillmore Street in the center of the Springs and that El Paso County land records show is smaller at nearly 95,000 square feet. That facility's operations and 160 employees will transition to the new warehouse next year.
Pepsi is partnering on the project with Denver-based Westfield Co., a real estate investment, management and development company; Westfield will develop and own the new warehouse facility, which Pepsi will lease. Pepsi and Westfield have partnered on a similar warehouse project in Adams County.
Westfield also will develop 70,000 square feet of space adjacent to Pepsi's new Colorado Springs warehouse that could provide more space to accommodate the company's growth and new products, said Shawn Early, PepsiCo Beverages North America's general manager and market director for its mountain west division that covers Colorado, New Mexico and the Texas panhandle.
As envisioned, Pepsi's new distribution warehouse in Colorado Springs will be a more efficient and productive facility, Early said.
For example, Pepsi's existing Stone Avenue facility has lower ceilings that limit how high products can be stacked, Early said.
"We have more roof space to go up," he said of the new building. "We can get higher racking, we can be more productive in the warehouse, whereas today we're a little bit limited."
Loading docks at the Stone Avenue facility, meanwhile, are at several different levels from the ground up, which make it more difficult to back up trucks for loading, Early said.
"Here, all of our loading docks will be state of the art. They'll have a dock lock system where no truck can leave early," he said. "It will be a much safer dock environment and it will be efficient for our trucks to get in and out of there. We'll be on one level and that will help us a lot."