PepsiCo Inc. and state officials on Thursday announced the Purchase-based beverage giant”™s bottling division will keep its headquarters in Somers and expand its presence there in what brokers called the largest lease transaction in the region”™s history.
The five-year deal keeping Pepsi Beverages Co. and more than 900 jobs in Westchester County and New York, despite efforts by Connecticut officials to bring the bottler to Danbury with a package of financial incentives, was first reported in the Business Journal in December. PepsiCo can opt to extend the lease at 1 Pepsi Way for five years.
The lease filings, completed nearly three months after the bottler”™s former 10-year lease expired, ended three years of difficult negotiations, during which PepsiCo last year acquired the former Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. in Somers and created its new bottling company. Pepsi Bottling Group had its headquarters there for 20 years and 1 Pepsi Way has been part of the Pepsi enterprise since 1985.
The bottler will lease the entire nine-story, 540,000-square-foot office building at 1 Pepsi Way, a 50 percent expansion. Pepsi Beverages will occupy space vacated by General Motors Corp.
The state”™s chief economic development arm, Empire State Development Corp., will sweeten the deal with a $4 million grant to PepsiCo to invest in the Somers facility. State officials said PepsiCo will invest up to $9 million in the project, while retaining 907 jobs and creating 22 new ones in Somers.
As part of the retention deal, the Westchester County Industrial Development Agency approved exemptions from sales and use taxes on the purchase, installation and maintenance of building materials, furniture and equipment for the bottler”™s expansion in Somers.
PepsiCo officials said the Somers building will house some 1,200 employees in all, including PepsiCo staff and contractors who support the company”™s beverage division. The bottler now occupies seven floors of the building.
“We”™re excited to share this news with the local community and the state leaders who worked to assure us that New York will continue to be a great place to do business,” Eric J. Foss, CEO of Pepsi Beverages Co., said in a prepared statement. “The Pepsi enterprise has had a long and successful history in New York. We”™ve always been proud to play a positive role in the communities in and around Westchester County, and we”™re eager to continue doing so in the years ahead.”
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, who worked with local, state and county officials to keep the bottling company from relocating across the state border, said the deal is important not only for the jobs it retains “but also for the other jobs this may bring to the region. We worked long and hard to see this result, and want to thank Pepsi for the faith they”™re showing in Westchester and in New York.”
Pepsi Beverages Co. was represented in negotiations by Paul Jacobs and Robert Caruso of CB Richard Ellis and PepsiCo”™s attorney, Garry Berman, of Robinson & Cole L.L.P. The owner of 1 Pepsi Way, Murray Hill Properties L.L.C. of New York City, was represented by Glenn Walsh and Arthur Mirante of Cushman & Wakefield and attorney Allen Wieder of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison L.L.P.
