Now that General Electric has announced plans to move production of gas engines out of Wisconsin, the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation is eager to show why it needs to locate here.
CEO Rakesh Naidu says he heard the news last week. Soon after, he reached out to his contacts in the provincial and federal government to see how they can help Windsor-Essex make its pitch to the U.S. giant.
"This is a region that has all the attributes they would need," says Naidu. "If they're making a list of all the attributes they would look into a region to land investment we should tick all of those boxes."
General Electric says it's moving to take advantage of Canadian export credit financing. The state of the art plant will employ 350 workers and could open within 20 months. The plant may be expanded to support other G-E businesses.
Naidu hopes to meet with company officials soon.