Buffalo Billion
Buffalo Billion is a New York state government project led by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo that aims to invest $1 billion in the Buffalo, New York area economy.[1] The project uses a combination of state grants and tax breaks to spur economic development.[2] Governor Cuomo first announced program in his 2012 "State of the State". The program is modeled on a similar program implemented in the Albany, New York area. A key project in the program is a $750 million SolarCity solar panel factory. The chairman of SolarCity is Elon Musk, the co-founder of Paypal and the CEO of Tesla Motors.[3]
Buffalo is a city known for snow. It is not the first place one would think to build a solar panel factory. But the city will soon be the home of the largest such manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere, according to SolarCity, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company that is set to begin moving into the complex later this year.
Engineering News-Record,
July 16, 2015[4]
An example of projects developing under Buffalo Billion include:[2]
- Solar panel factories
- A solar panel array at a former Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna built by BQ Energy, a renewable energy development company
- A data and customer service center for Yahoo!
Development projects
| Name | Funds from Buffalo Billion | Project | Completion date |
|---|---|---|---|
| SolarCity solar panel factory | $750 million | Solar panel factory | Summer 2017 |
| Buffalo High Tech Manufacturing Innovation Hub at RiverBend | $225 million | Facility to host clean energy businesses | 2015 |
| Buffalo Medical Innovation and Commercialization Hub | $50 million | Biomedical research equipment and facilities center | 2015 |
| Genomic research partnership | $50 million | Partnership between the University at Buffalo and the New York Genome Center in Manhattan. Goal is to use genomic medical research to find new ways to treat, prevent, and manage serious diseases. | Unknown |
| Workforce training and development | Approximately $10 million | Train new workers going into manufacturing jobs | "2015 and beyond" |
| Buffalo Niagara Institute for Advanced Manufacturing Competitiveness | "Unspecified, but likely to be “tens of millions” of dollars. The state has spent $8 million to buy a temporary site and is paying $800,000 to the facility’s operator." | Institute to help local manufacturing companies create new products | Spring 2014 |
| Downtown Niagara Falls development challenge | $20 million | Revitalize downtown Niagara Falls | Ongoing from 2014-2019 |
| Robert Moses Parkway removal | $11.5 million | "Remove a roughly one-mile stretch of the Robert Moses Parkway along the upper rapids of the Niagara River as part of a bid to bolster Niagara Falls as a tourist destination and remove a barrier between the waterfront and downtown Niagara Falls" | Spring 2016 |
| Daemen College/ Empire Visual Effects | $4.5 million | Create a visual effects industry in Buffalo | Unspecified |
| Rainbow Centre Mall | Unknown | Fill the empty mall with businesses | Unknown |
SolarCity
SolarCity is the largest rooftop solar installer in the United States,[2] headquartered in San Mateo, California.[4] Under Buffalo Billion, SolarCity received $750 million in incentives in exchange for building a factory. According to The New York Times, after the factory is complete, SolarCity will create 1,500 new jobs on site; an additional 1,500 new jobs are expected to be created among suppliers in the area.[2]
| Component | Number |
|---|---|
| Acres | 88 |
| Building size (sq. ft.) | 1,200,000 |
| Project schedule (months) | 18 |
| Buffalo Billion incentives | $750,000,000 |
Controversy
Federal prosecutors are investigating the Empire State Development Corporation (ESD); specifically, how ESD chose companies to give award fund to for the Buffalo Billion project. The U.S. Attorney's office asked ESD to assist it by providing documentation. To aid in that process, ESD has hired a Washington, D.C. law firm at the rate of $800 per hour. WGRZ asked the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, to comment about the case, but Bharara declined.[7]
Louis Ciminelli, a developer of two buildings under the Buffalo Billion plan, contributed $96,500 to Andrew Cuomo's gubernatorial campaigns. McGuire Development, which was awarded contracts to build a technology hub, donated $25,000 to Cuomo's campaigns. However, Cuomo's office said that the State University of New York (SUNY) and its non-profit was in charge of the bidding process, and the governor's office did not play a role.[3]
References
- ↑ "About Buffalo Billion". buffalobillion.ny.gov. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cardwell, Diane (2015-07-20). "The Wind and Sun Are Bringing the Shine Back to Buffalo". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
- 1 2 Carl Campanile; Bruce Golding (2015-09-18). "The Cuomo administration has a big headache right now". New York Post. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- 1 2 3 Maloney, Peter (2016-07-16). "Here Comes the Sun". Engineering News-Record. BNP Media. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
- ↑ Robinson, David (2014-01-26). "Your guide to the Buffalo Billion". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
- ↑ Robinson, David (2016-02-10). "SolarCity delaying Buffalo factory production". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
- ↑ Ewing, Claudine (2016-03-16). "$800 an hour lawyers battling Buffalo Billion probe". WGRZ NBC Channel 2 (Buffalo, New York). Retrieved 2016-04-06.