PepsiCo, the New York-based global beverage and food producer, has leased 80,000 square feet of space in the Central Business Park, in Spokane Valley, and plans to consolidate its Eastern Washington and North Idaho distribution operations there after completion of a $1.5 million tenant improvement project now under way at the site.

The company's newly leased space, at 11016 E. Montgomery Drive, is north of Interstate 90, about midway between Argonne Road and Pines Road.

PepsiCo says in a press release that combining the operations there will enable the company to distribute its products regionally from one site. Access to I-90 and north-south transportation corridors also was an important factor in choosing the Valley site, PepsiCo says.

The company plans to move its regional operations to the Central Business Park by the end of the year. PepsiCo currently operates three smaller distribution operations in Spokane, Spokane Valley, and Coeur d'Alene, at which the company employs 130 people.

Greater Spokane Incorporated helped PepsiCo obtain $50,000 in state Strategic Reserve Funds as an incentive to bring and retain living-wage jobs here.

Records on file with the city of Spokane Valley show that Montgomery Realty LLC, of Spokane, which owns the Central Business Park, is performing tenant improvements on the PepsiCo-leased space that include installing loading dock doors, remodeling office space, and upgrading parking. Eagle Point Construction, of Spokane Valley, is the contractor on the tenant-improvement project, and Bernardo Wills Architects PC, of Spokane, designed it.

The 50-acre Central Business Park includes a 500,000-square-foot, warehouse-and-office complex formerly occupied by the grocery distributor SuperValu Inc.

Montgomery Realty, which bought the complex in 2008, is headed by Alvin Wolff Jr., a principal in The Wolff Co., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based, family-run real estate investment and development company with Spokane roots. The Wolff Co.'s Spokane Valley-based subsidiaries include Wolff Corporate Housing, and The Wolff Co. is part owner of Aslin-Finch Feed Co. and Cascade Seed Co., all of which are tenants at the Central Business Park.