HOWARD COUNTY ELLICOTT CITY — Coke plant to invigorate economy, officials say
ELLICOTT CITY -- As far as Howard County is concerned, things will indeed go better with Coke, local business people say. Much, much better.
It's not merely the $4 million a year the company is expected to add to the county budget by way of corporate property taxes or the 700 new workers who will be assigned to Coke's state-of-the-art production and distribution facility in Dorsey.
It's also what Rouse Co. Vice President Alton J. Scavo ecstatically calls "the wonderful spinoffs" -- a new economic vitality created by an increased demand for local goods and services combined with help for schools and non-profits from "an established, world-class corporate citizen."
If half of the expected 900 employees live in the county in an average-priced $184,000 home and earn the county median household income of $54,348, the county would collect $366,849 more in local income taxes and $857,808 more in personal property taxes, county officials estimated.
Coca-Cola Enterprises Northeast, which paid $15.2 million for the site, will build a $100 million to $200 million syrup and bottling plant on a 120-acre site at Parkway Corporate Center east of U.S. Route 1 near the Anne Arundel County line.
Gov. William Donald Schaefer, County Executive Charles I. Ecker, and Henry Schimberg, the president and CEO of the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., will attend an announcement ceremony today.