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The Associated Press

ATLANTA 鈥� The building that housed the original World of Coca-Cola is going flat at the hands of Georgia鈥檚 state government.

Crews continued Friday to demolish the onetime temple of fizz in downtown Atlanta near the state capitol. Officials plan to convert the site to a parking lot.

A newer, larger聽Coca-Cola Co.聽museum opened in Atlanta鈥檚聽Centennial Olympic Park in 2007. The park has become the heart of the city鈥檚 tourism industry, ringed by hotels and attractions including the Georgia Aquarium, the College Football Hall of Fame, the聽National Center for Civil and Human Rights,聽State Farm Arena聽and the Georgia World Congress Center convention hall.

State government bought the original three-story museum building, which opened in 1990, from Coca-Cola in 2005 for $1 million, said Gerald Pilgrim, deputy executive director of the Georgia Building Authority. The agency maintains and manages state properties.

Once home to Atlanta鈥檚 most visited indoor attraction, the building has been vacant since 2007, Pilgrim said. State officials decided to demolish it because some of the existing surface parking for the Georgia Capitol complex is going to become a construction staging area for a聽new legislative office building, he said. Demolition of the former museum will create space for new parking next to a former railroad freight depot that is a state-owned event space.

鈥淲ith limited space around Capitol Hill, there was a need to replace the public parking that was being lost due to the neighboring construction project,鈥� Pilgrim wrote in an email.

Lawmakers this year agreed, with little dissent, to spend $392 million to build a new eight-story legislative office building for themselves and to renovate the 1889 Capitol building. That project is supposed to begin soon and finish by the end of 2026.

The demolition project will cost slightly less than $1.3 million, according to Pilgrim, and should wrap up by Aug. 1.