Mike Suco said Coca-Cola United looks well beyond the present when it looks into the future.

“We are a company that thinks not in a year or two or three years,” the president and CEO told the Jefferson County Commission on Thursday. “We think in 50-year increments.”

With that long-range view in mind, Coca-Cola Bottling Company United announced an estimated $330 million investment in a new, multifaceted Birmingham Coca-Cola facility in Birmingham’s Kingston neighborhood. As a result, the company is expected to create as many as 50 new jobs and retain more than 750 jobs in the Magic City.

“This is a legacy building,” Suco said as the commission approved a $2 million grant to aid Coca-Cola in its development effort. “It’s going to be there for 50 years.

“Our company is 122 years old,” he said. “Hopefully, somebody will be standing here 122 years from now and sharing with you the great news and continued prosperous companies.”

Coca-Cola United ultimately will move its headquarters from a campus north of Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport to the former Stockham Valves and Fittings property, just south of Interstate 20/59. Coca-Cola’s new home is a brownfield for which environmental remediation is no small task.

“We’ve known what we had when we bought the plant,” Suco said. “For us to be able to not only put our facility in this community but then take what was a very big eyesore and convert it to what we want to be one of the most beautiful locations in the county and the city and welcome people to the city and the county.

“We know the work that has to be done,” the president and CEO said. “Again, we’re taking that challenge on and with help from the county and others, we’re gonna be able to get that place cleaned up and make sure that it looks the way everybody would want.”

Commissioners asked about the possibility of school students taking tours of the facility.

“It would be our goal to be able to bring people in at times,” Suco said, “and let them tour our facility and see the history of our company, see the history of what we’ve done together here in the city of Birmingham and in the county.”

Coca-Cola United in 2013 purchased the land of the former Stockham site on 40th Street North, about two miles from its current location off East Lake Boulevard, in the hopes of one day building a new facility.

That new facility will serve Jefferson County and 11 surrounding counties.

“The impact of Coca-Cola Bottling Company expanding its footprint is nothing more than a sheer blessing for Jefferson County and in the Birmingham community,” Commissioner Lashunda Scales said.  “To see that they’re continuing on their commitment is huge. The county has invested $2 million in exchange for their commitment of more than $330 million. It’s a win-win.”

Prosecutor Pay Raises, Hallmark Farm Center, More Business

In other action, the commission approved a salary adjustment for each of the prosecutors in the office of the district attorney in the Bessemer Division, effective July 1. The action mirrors the one taken recently for prosecutors in the office of Birmingham Division District Attorney Danny Carr.

Commissioners also acknowledged an agreement between UAB Health System and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office for inmate medical services. The new agreement will have inmates in Bessemer taken to the new UAB West Hospital but with no additional cost for that change.

Separately, the commission amended the deadline to secure funding by Nov. 30 and to amend the amount needed to $80 million for the proposed Alabama Farm Center on the old Hallmark Farms property in Warrior.

Also, the commission president was authorized to execute a professional services agreement with the Alabama Sports Council for $400,000 for fiscal 2023-2024. The sports council manages the McDonald’s Magic City Classic presented by Coca-Cola, which annually pits the football teams from Alabama State and Alabama A&M universities against one another.