PepsiCo's largest bottling plant in the United States has become the commercial centerpiece of a sprawling new Denver-area development called High Point, where a Colorado special district plans to borrow roughly $201 million in municipal bonds to build out a 355-acre mixed-use community. The bond-funded pocket sits inside a much larger master-planned project near Denver International Airport that, at full buildout, is expected to include 2.3 million square feet of PepsiCo facilities, 750 residential units, 12 hotels, and additional industrial, retail, commercial, and restaurant space.
The bottling plant itself traces back to a 2022 land deal, according to Bloomberg, when PepsiCo acquired nearly 152 acres in the High Point district from master developer Westside Investment Partners for $49.2 million, as reported by The Denver Post. The City and County of Denver had sweetened the deal with $1 million from its Business Incentive Fund, after the city beat out four other states during PepsiCo's site-selection process. Xcel Energy also stepped in with a 10-year Economic Development Rate incentive, cutting the plant's electricity costs by 30% during its first three years of operation, according to Site Selection Magazine.
From RiNo's Industrial Roots to the Airport Corridor
The 1.2 million-square-foot High Point plant replaces PepsiCo's historic 30-acre manufacturing site in Denver's River North Art District, where the company had operated since the 1950s before outgrowing the property, which was later sold for urban redevelopment, per the same reporting. The move brought roughly 250 workers over from the old RiNo plant and was projected to add nearly 250 new local jobs, pushing the facility's total headcount to about 500 employees in roles ranging from supply chain managers to mechanics, forklift operators, and truck drivers.
To support that scale of production, civil engineering firm Wallace Design Collective built specialized environmental infrastructure on-site, including an Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility and a Wastewater pH Neutralization System building, designed to support PepsiCo's global sustainability framework. The manufacturing lines were set up to produce Pepsi, Pepsi Zero Sugar, Gatorade, Bubly, Rockstar, Propel, and Muscle Milk, according to CBS News. A photo caption from 2025 showed equipment staged near the plant while it was still under construction in Denver, per Bloomberg's reporting.
How the $201 Million in Bonds Fits the Bigger Picture
The 355-acre district financed by the roughly $201 million bond issue is just one piece of the much larger High Point master plan, which covers 1,800 acres across Denver and Aurora and is entitled for up to 12 million square feet of commercial space and 3,000 residential units, according to THK Associates. Master planning for the area near Peña Boulevard began back in 2004, long before PepsiCo committed to building there.
Colorado special metropolitan districts like the one behind High Point's bond issue finance local development by selling tax-exempt municipal bonds to pay for public infrastructure such as roads, drainage, and water lines. That debt is then serviced through mill levies assessed on property owners within the district, according to the Colorado Office of the State Auditor. That structure means the bonds' repayment ultimately hinges on how much commercial and residential value builds up around the PepsiCo plant in the years ahead.
A New Beverage Rivalry Near DIA
PepsiCo isn't the only beverage giant betting on the airport corridor. Rival Swire Coca-Cola secured approvals in 2024 for its own bottling plant three miles north, a $350 million to $500 million facility spanning 570,000 square feet, according to The Real Deal. Swire Coca-Cola signed a 75-year ground lease with the city for 97 acres in DIA's Second Creek Campus, cementing the area as a hub for competing soft drink manufacturing just a few miles apart.
