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.
[5] Sources:[3][6][7] In 2016 SolarCity was the largest rooftop solar installer in the United States,[3] headquartered in San Mateo, California.
[3] In mid-May 2016, the New York legislature had planned to take a vote on a measure that would have given an extra $500 million to the SolarCity project.
The New York Times wrote that legislators "hinted they would exercise more oversight of the governor's banner economic initiative.
According to an August 2018 report in the Wall Street Journal, Tesla is no longer buying all of the solar modules produce there.
The Wall Street Journal report wrote that the deal to buy all the Panasonic output is no longer the case.
[10] The production issues have also "rattled the face of state officials" regarding the ability of Tesla to deliver on investment and employment promises.
[11] However, in May 2023, Percoco and western New York developer Louis Ciminelli had their convictions reversed by the United States Supreme Court.
[12] In July 2018, four men were convicted of rigging bids for state contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including Buffalo Billion: Alain Kaloyeros, former SUNY Polytechnic Institute head; Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, executives at Syracuse-based COR Development Co.; and Louis Ciminelli, the CEO of LPCiminelli Inc.[13][14] Peter Galbraith Kelly Jr., the son of high-profile Connecticut-based lobbyist Peter G. Kelly was sentenced to 14 months in prison in October 2018 after pleading guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud when he oversaw the development of the Oxford Power Plant.
[18] In November 2016, a federal grand jury indicted Cuomo's former aide Joseph Percoco and the former president of the SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Alain Kaloyeros, for bribery and bid rigging, alongside six government contractors.
[20][21] Cuomo's former aide Todd Howe had already pleaded guilty to eight corruption charges relating to COR Development and LPCiminelli.
A handful of people connected closely to each other have dominated the process of planning, building and promoting the majority of Buffalo Billion's projects.
In November 2013, the CEO of LPCiminelli, Louis P. Ciminelli, hosted a fundraiser for Cuomo three weeks before submitting his company's bid to the Buffalo Billion program.
According to the New York Times:[8]... the state's request for proposals was worded in a way that appeared to exclude all bidders except the eventual winner, LPCiminelli.
In 1991 he was listed as a co-defendant in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) suit against long time mob controlled Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 210 in Buffalo.
His name appears with known soldiers and associates of the Buffalo Crime family including Leonard Falzone, Dan Sansanese, Joseph Pieri, Peter Gerace, and Salvatore Caci.
[25] It now appears L.P. Ciminelli is being investigated on another possible bid rigging charge involving the Culinary Institute project for Niagara County Community College.
On May 4, 2016, media reported that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been investigating Kaloyeros in a possible alleged "bid-rigging" violation related to the development of a dorm constructed at SUNY Polytechnic.
[28] As of June 2016, New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has been conducting a year-long audit of the Excelsior Jobs Program.