Samsung and officials from Ontario and Windsor announced last month the city will open a wind turbine manufacturing plant, creating 300 jobs. (CBC)Valiant Machine & Tool Inc., is selling its east-end facility to CS Wind to build wind turbines for Samsung C&T Corp., Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis said on Monday.

The deal, announced Dec. 1, will create 300 manufacturing jobs, along with 400 spin-off jobs, said Windsor Essex Development Corporation VP Patrick Persichilli.

The $40- to $50-million investment was finalized by the city, the province and Samsung C&T Corp. on Monday. Samsung's Korean partner CS Wind will build and run the plant. Officials said Valiant's footprint is a good fit for its production plans.

The city will spend about $10 million to buy property east of the Valiant building — located at 9355 Anchor Dr. — for a new rail line leading to the plant. It will work with CP rail to build the line to the factory.

Mayor Eddie Francis said Monday that other regions were aggressively pursuing Samsung for the deal that Windsor landed. (Steven Bull/CBC News)The project will span 24 hectares and be attached to existing rail lines.

No jobs will be lost when Valiant moves production from its current corporate headquarters and manufacturing plant in the Twin Oaks industrial park to other facilities in Windsor-Essex to make way for the sale, said the machine and tool company in a release on Monday. Valiant has six other facilities in Windsor, Oldcastle and LaSalle.

CS Wind will also become a customer of Valiant Machine & Tool, said the company on Monday.

Project to be catalyst for other investments

Persichilli, who helped negotiate the deal, said it represents a major marketing opportunity for the region.

"This can be used, and will be used and will be leveraged to again, to provide the information to the world about the value proposition that exists in Windsor-Essex," said Persichilli at Monday's late-afternoon news conference.

Last month, Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid said Windsor was chosen because of the automotive design and manufacturing skills of workers in the region, in addition to easy road, rail and shipping access to other parts of the province and the northeastern United States.

Representatives of the city and Samsung have spent the last month finalizing the deal and choosing a location, but Windsor's mayor admitted other regions were trying to lure Samsung to their cities.

"What I will say is other communities were very aggressive, and what other communities wanted was what was announced here," said Francis. "They were pursuing CS Wind, and they were pursuing this opportunity like they pursue every other opportunity."

Construction begins 'immediately'

CS Wind expected to start production by August of 2011, so the work of transforming the land, buildings and rail line will begin almost immediately, said Francis. Workers will also be hired and trained in the coming months, officials said.

Samsung officials have said they will be hiring welders, painters and machinists who will earn wages in the range of $18 to $20 an hour. The facility is expected to open in September 2011 and produce between 200 and 300 wind turbines a year.

Last year, Samsung signed a $7.5-billion energy deal with the province in exchange for incentives to triple Ontario's renewable wind and solar energy generation. At the time, Samsung said the deal would result in the world's largest wind and solar energy cluster.

The company agreed to open four manufacturing plants by 2015 and create 16,000 direct and indirect jobs in green energy.