Officials with Coca-Cola and the City of Fresno cut the ribbon Monday on the new Fresno bottling plant. Photo via Fresno City Council President Tyler Maxwell's Facebook page

A project more than two years in the making saw its grand opening in South Fresno on Monday.

Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling had its first Fresno Planning Commission vote nearly two years ago for a 205,000 square-foot expansion of its bottling operations on 15 acres near East and North avenues.

It is about a mile north on Highway 99 from its current facility, which is being replaced. About 285 employees are slated to work at the new facility.

 

The project faced early opposition from social justice groups who say South Central Fresno and its residents are already burdened enough with pollution from the area’s other industrial developments.

The Fresno City Council ultimately approved the project — which was zoned for heavy industrial use — in March 2023, with ground broken later that year in August.

Design features for the new building include a larger warehouse with employee amenities, a truck maintenance and wash facility, plans for solar and electric vehicles and drought resistant landscaping.

“We’re looking forward to continuing to build on our more than 30-year history with the City of Fresno and the Central Valley,” Lauren Ruiz, Central Valley market unit president for Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, said at the groundbreaking.

The company also made a $300,000 donation to the South Central Community Benefits Fund to support various environmental mitigation efforts in the South Central Fresno area.