Chattanooga’s Coca-Cola Co. hopes to increase its presence in town with a proposed $62 million expansion.Everything’s better with Coke
Will Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United’s proposed $62 million expansion for Chattanooga be the real thing?
We hope so. It would add 43 jobs to the 487 Coca-Cola Bottling Co. employees in Chattanooga on Amnicola Highway. The catch is that there is very little vacant industrial land left in the city.
Coke is hoping to work out a deal to build a 290,000-square-foot distribution and sales facility on the former Olan Mills plant site on Highway 153, but that plan would require the rezoning of two plats of land next door. The rezoning proposal passed a City Council committee this week and goes to the full council next week.
It will be an important vote, as Coca-Cola officials have said that while they hope to stay in Chattanooga, they will put the expansion elsewhere — perhaps in another state — if their needs can’t be met here. That could mean fewer Chattanooga jobs, as all but 203 of the present 487 workers, along with 43 new hires, would move to the new facility.