A long-shuttered auto plant in southern Wisconsin could soon get a new lease on life.
Multiple reports indicated that General Motors retained CBRE, a Los Angeles-based real estate firm, to handle the sale of its Janesville Assembly Plant.
A global marketing campaign to promote the property will be launched in the coming weeks and a sale is expected within a year.
Janesville Assembly made cars for GM for some 90 years, but its production of large SUVs stopped in 2008.
In 2009, the plant was placed on standby as GM went through bankruptcy -- which left the door open to restarting production -- but the latest collective bargaining agreement between the United Auto Workers and GM officially closed the plant.
GM officials met with representatives from state and local government this week to outline its plans for the sale.
City Manager Mark Freitag said that he hopes to bring another manufacturer into Janesville.
“They're opening it up across the globe, which I think is a good thing because it brings all kinds of new opportunities to the city,” Freitag told the Janesville Gazette.
GM plans to complete its study of ground contamination on the plant's north side this spring and finish cleaning up the southern end by June. The city is working with the state Department of Natural Resources to address pollution of the nearby Rock River.