Photo courtesy of Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola United continues to move closer to building a new $338 million campus that will be a gateway to Birmingham, Ala., officials with the city and company said May 14.
"It's going to be phenomenal," Coca-Cola United CEO Mike Suco said after the Birmingham City Council approved incentives for the project. "It will welcome everybody to Birmingham. You'll love it."
Al.com reported that the city's new development agreement with Coca-Cola Bottling Company United-Central LLC provides incentives for the soft drink bottler to keep its headquarters in Birmingham by building on the site of the former Stockham Valve property.
The new Coca-Cola campus will be highly visible from Interstate 20/59 east of downtown and also visible to air traffic flying into Birmingham.
"You're going to be able to see Coca-Cola from the interstate and you're going to be able to see it from the sky," said Cornell Wesley, director of innovation and economic opportunity for the city of Birmingham.
He added that Coca-Cola's planned investment of $338 million in a future headquarters ranks as one of the largest corporate investments in the city's history. The new corporate facility will include a sales, distribution and warehousing center as well as offices and a customer call center.
The complex will encompass a total of about 500,000 sq. ft. of space, including the 150,000-sq.-ft. headquarters, its 300,000-sq.-ft. warehouse, and another 50,000 sq. ft. of auxiliary buildings.
Suco said Coca-Cola will add up to 50 new jobs at the campus and plans to offer certified training for multiple positions.
"We are excited about [Coca-Cola] remaining in our community, and what we're most excited about is the new jobs that it will create," said Wesley. "We hope they will remain here another 100-plus years."
A formal announcement about the new campus will be made after the Jefferson County Commission addresses its planned incentives for the project in the coming days, said Linda Sewell, spokesperson of Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United-Central.
As part of Birmingham's incentives, the city will abate non-educational, construction-related sales and use taxes for 10 years as well as non-educational ad valorem taxes for 15 years, Wesley told Al.com.
Earthmoving Already Under Way at Site
Coca-Cola United has owned the former Stockham Valve property in Birmingham for more than a decade.
"We've had a vision for 10 years to do this on this site," Suco told Al.com. "From the time we break ground it will take us about three years [to build it]."
In fact, bulldozers were seen back in March clearing trees and moving dirt on the highly-visible site's 105 acres south of the Tallapoosa Street exit off I-20/59 and east of Birmingham's W.C. Patton Park.
The city's incentives include spending up to $400,000 for water infrastructure improvements and construction of an access road to the site.
Coca Cola Bottling Co. United-Central LLC currently operates from a distribution center at 4600 East Lake Blvd. overlooking Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. The soft drink producer continued to upgrade its facilities there over the years, but Sewell said it has run out of room at that location.
The company was established in 1902 and has grown into the third largest Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in the country and the second largest privately owned firm in Alabama, Suco noted.
The property between 40th and 42nd St. North at 4000 Richard Arrington Blvd. (formerly 10th Avenue North) served as the campus of Stockham Valves and Fittings from 1914-2007.
That company, founded in Birmingham in 1903, became one of the nation's largest producers of valves and pipe fittings for heavy industry.
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