WINDSOR, Ont. — The sprawling, 1.25-million-square-foot General Motors Transmission plant, which permanently ended production late last month, is a unique brownfield site that could draw a large employer, including Siemens Canada, says Patrick Persichilli, vice-president of the WindsorEssex Economic Development Corporation.

"We're involved in trying to find an owner, tenant, something to invest in terms of using that facility and all of our existing brownfield sites," Persichilli said Tuesday.

"That site is really unique for a lot of reasons," including its size and access to rail transportation, he said.

Most brownfield sites in the area range in size from 10,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet, he noted.

"In terms of availability of anything over 250,000 square feet, we don't have a lot available right now. We can market the fact that it's a very large location."

Another amenity -- 40-foot, high-beam ceilings in parts of the GM plant -- is a feature that would be ideal for a "very large equipment manufacturer," Persichilli said.

"What we're trying to understand is how high those ceilings are and what proportion of the plant has high ceilings because that lends itself to a very large equipment type manufacturer -- wind turbine blades, very large construction and mining and forestry type projects -- because you need very high ceilings for that type of thing."

Siemens Canada is scouting southern Ontario sites to locate a plant, which would employ 300 workers and supply wind turbine blades to Samsung and other companies. A final decision is expected by September. Efforts to reach a Siemens representative on the suitability of the GM plant were unsuccessful.

A GM spokesman would not confirm plans to sell the plant, although the automaker does intend to sell off equipment.