KITCHENER - A local medical cannabis company is moving into the empty Lear Corp. manufacturing plant - and has plans to hire between 400 to 600 employees by the end of next year as it ramps up production dramatically.

James E. Wagner Cultivation (JWC), Waterloo Region's only licensed medical marijuana producer, is breathing new life into the shuttered Manitou Drive factory that was once an iconic employer in the city.

JWC is also in talks with Conestoga College about developing an accredited program to train people in commercial cannabis cultivation and processing, a skill set that will be in high demand once Canada legalizes recreational marijuana next summer.

At its peak, the Lear plant employed 1,300 people, pumping out thousands of seats that were installed in Fords, Chryslers and General Motors automobiles that rolled across North America. When it closed in 2015, the plant employed just 155 people.

The chief executive officer of JWC, which has signed a lease for the property and will take occupancy in January, says he's thrilled to be reviving the old plant and be bringing new jobs with it.

"It's a dream come true, although it's a bit of a terrifying dream come true because we still have a lot of challenges ahead of us," said Nathan Woodworth.

The Kitchener-based company, started by a handful of family members, has ambitious growth targets. It's leasing 275,000 square feet of space in the former Lear factory, and plans to put 100 "flowering rooms" inside it - enough to produce as much as 60 kilograms of marijuana every day.

For now, the company's focus is on the licensed, medical marijuana market. But JWC is also betting on the much larger recreational market, and is planning to do a public offering of shares early next year to finance that expansion.

As it shopped around for a location big enough for its future plans, it was important to stay in Waterloo Region, Woodworth said.

"We're a family company, with deep ties to the city and region, and it's always been important to us to support our community as we move forward in our mission to provide all of Canada with top-quality cannabis," he said.

"Moving into a building that played such an important role in the development of our community is a perfect fit. We're looking forward to revitalizing a real gem of a building and bring back jobs."

The company spent three years getting government approval to grow medicinal marijuana, and harvested its first crop of aeroponically-grown cannabis last spring. It will have to seek similar approval to produce more medical marijuana at the Lear plant.

Right now, JWC is a 30-person operation producing about 20 kilograms a week of medicinal-strength marijuana out of its other location, a 15,000-square-foot building in Kitchener. It's been financed by private investors so far.

The company has some work to do to turn the Lear plant into an industrial-scale growing site. But apart from a new security fence and surveillance cameras, Woodworth said it will be a low-profile operation that won't attract a lot of attention.

Neighbours won't smell much coming from the plant, either, because the company will use start-of-the-art ventilating systems, he said. JWC wants to be up front with people about what it's doing, because medical marijuana is still a misunderstood industry, Woodworth said.

"Cannabis is a product that's at a strange transition point in Canada right now, and it's not always well understood," he said.

"It's important to us to be transparent and communicate with people what we do, so there's no reason people need to fear having that kind of production facility nearby."

While there are still many questions around how producing and supplying the recreational marijuana market will work, companies like JWC are moving ahead with aggressive plans to tap a customer base believed to be worth billions.

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Woodworth is betting big that a factory that once produced auto parts used coast-to-coast will become known for a new brand name that's even more recognizable to Canadians.

"There's a great need for Canadians who use cannabis recreationally to have access to a safe, high-quality and consistent product," he said.

"We believe it's important for us to bring our products to the general, recreational market. And we will be a major player in that market."