Olathe has signed off on $350 million in incentives for the next phase of the Heartland Coca-Cola bottling plant campus on the city’s southern edge.
Earlier this week, the Olathe City Council unanimously voted to issue the industrial revenue bonds, which are also tied to a 10-year, 55% property tax abatement, to the development near 167th Street and Hedge Lane.
Bonds to cover cost of bottling facility
In 2023, the city signaled its intent to issue a package of incentives for the multibuilding Heartland Coca-Cola bottling plant campus planned in southern Olathe.
The full package, valued at up to $810 million, will cover multiple phases expected to result in more than one million square feet of new construction.
The bonds the city council issued on Tuesday will cover a portion of the overall project, which is expected to include a nearly 680,000-square-foot industrial facility, according to city documents.
Last spring, the city issued $405 million in industrial revenue bonds for the project’s first phase.
Mayor John Bacon suggested this week that the initial 600,000-square-foot facility should open soon.
Heartland Coca-Cola’s Olathe project has been in the works
- The Lenexa-based regional arm of Coca-Cola announced plans to build a new campus for bottling and distribution two years ago in Olathe.
- In October 2022, the city approved an annexation for the project and set in motion the formation of a benefit district to help finance some of the infrastructure improvements that would be required for the plant.
- Since then, the city has taken a number of actions related to the development, including approving site plans.
- Coca-Cola’s chief sales officer Kevin Shea estimated at the time that the high-tech “production campus” could employ roughly 175 people at the start.
- A 2023 staff report suggests that at full scale, the campus could have as many as 675 employees, with an average starting salary of $55,000.
- One building is expected to open this year, though full capacity likely won’t be reached at least until 2025.
Keep reading: Olathe warehouse project spurs bigger question: What are incentives for?
