SolarCity - Buffalo, New York

If any Rust Belt city could use an economic development jolt, it’s Buffalo. So landing the next-biggest outpost of the new “green” economy offered by Elon Musk — after the Tesla battery “gigafactory” — was a huge score for the city and for western New York. SolarCity chose a former brownfield site in South Buffalo, at the RiverBend industrial site, for a $750 million factory that the state is building for the company, bringing 3,000 jobs. SolarCity will invest $5 billion in the whole project. Owned by the State University of New York, the site is part of the Start-Up NY program launched by Gov. Cuomo that offers companies significant incentives to locate on New York college and university campuses and tap into the technology and talent there.

“We have to change the mentality of Buffalo, [and] one of the leading solar companies in the world is coming on board and making this the largest advancement in Buffalo’s economy in a generation,” Gov. Cuomo said in September. In April, the state negotiated a four-month window with SolarCity to locate an even bigger factory at the site if the company gets to the point of further expansion.

READ MORE