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Coca-Cola has left the building. Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, Inc. broke ground on a new sales center in Auburn earlier this week. 

The facility will employ around 75 people, and be completed by 2025. 

The center is an $18 million investment for the area, according to a press release by the drink manufacturer. 

The company relocated to Auburn after closing operations in West Point, after 50 years of being in the Georgia border town. 

While Coca-Cola had been looking for a larger facility outside of West Point, the storms last March expedited the move to Auburn. The West Point facility off of Exit 2 was damaged during the storms. 

“The storm damage sustained in West Point created an urgency to find a temporary facility in Auburn to first and foremost ensure the safety of our associates and continue our operations,” said Coca-Cola UNITED Central Region Vice President Ernie Merritt, adding the West Point community continues to be served at the highest standards.

All West Point employees have kept their jobs since the company vacated the facility and have since been transferred to the Auburn location, a two-year-leased warehouse. 

Birmingham-based Coca-Cola UNITED is the second largest privately held company in Alabama, the loss of which has been felt in West Point. However, the company donated the land where the facility was, on E 10th St.  

The Auburn facility will serve as a hub to distribute products throughout Chambers, Coosa, Elmore, Lee, Macon, Randolph, Russell and Tallapoosa counties, as well as Troup County in Georgia.

The move closes the chapter of Coca-Cola in West Point, after over 100 years, and 50 since the E 10th St location opened. 

“[Coca-Cola] will be greatly missed, and we wish them well,” said Steve Tramell, West Point’s mayor. 

Tramell said the city hopes to sell the land off I-85 to a hotel chain, as well as some fast food restaurants.