Pepsi launches a new generation warehouse, distribution facility in Colorado Springs

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."

At the same time, the building has been designed with Pepsi's sustainability initiative — called "pep Positive" — in mind, Early said.

Forklifts, for example, will be electric powered instead of running on propane, while charging facilities will be installed on site, he said.

The building also has been designed and engineered to allow the addition of solar panels in the future, Early said.

Large tractor-trailer trucks that deliver products, meanwhile, eventually are expected to be electric powered, he said. Those trucks also will have solar panels installed on their roofs that will allow electric pallet jacks inside the vehicles — used to lift and load products — to charge as they drive around throughout the day instead of being plugged in overnight.

"It's absolutely going to have a better impact on the environment," Early said. "We're able to charge our equipment at our own site. We're not having to rely on propane gas coming from off site into our facility all the time. It's a little different work environment for our employees to be sure."

The new Pepsi distribution warehouse joins dozens of industrial and office users along Powers Boulevard, which runs south to the city's airport and is near Peterson Space Force Base.

Amazon, FedEx, Ace Hardware, Coca-Cola, Taylor Farms and American Tire Distributors are some of the familiar names with facilities along or near South Powers, while Northrop Grumman and SAIC are among defense contractors in the area.

Pepsi's warehouse, meanwhile, will extend the company's longtime presence in Colorado Springs.

The soft drink's corporate arrival in the city dates back to 1936, when entrepreneur Ross Lane began to sell cases of Pepsi to small businesses, along with tobacco, candy and other wholesale products. That relationship led to the Lane family becoming a Pepsi bottler and distributor for more than 70 years until it sold the business to the Pepsi corporation in 2008.