Late full-court press lands Pepsi in North Carolina. (Pepsi-Cola Co.)

Phoenix appeared to be well on its way to landing Pepsi-Cola Co.'s new customer service center when officials in North Carolina jumped into action in the eleventh hour and landed the deal.

So say sources in North Carolina who feared that Pepsi's new facility, scheduled to employ up to 200 people in its first year of operation, would be lost to Arizona.

Last week, Pepsi officials announced that the facility would be located in 88,000 square feet in an existing office building in Winston-Salem, N.C. The number of jobs is expected to grow to 1,000 within three years, and Pepsi has signed on for expansion space of up to 190,000 square feet.

Although Pepsi officials refuse to …