BUFFALO, N.Y. - Governor Cuomo may not have bet the house on SolarCity, but he bet half the house.
Half of the Buffalo Billion, $500 million, is going to build the plant for SolarCity at Riverbend, and the state is spending another $250 million in other funds for the plant, bringing the state's for a total investment to $750 million.
The promised payoff: 1,400 good paying jobs.
But SolarCity's stock is in the tank. It's down by 65% since the first of the year, and the company announced on Wednesday that it wouldn't hit full production of its solar panels at the Buffalo plant until the summer of 2017, that's up to six months later than first forecast, because of a delay in equipment deliveries.
Despite the bad news coming from the company, the governor, speaking in Dunkirk on Thursday, says he's not concerned about the SolarCity's future in Buffalo.
"The industry is the right industry, renewable is the wave of the future, that's undoubtable. SolarCity, apparently they're going to be a little late on the equipment delivery, they have very sophisticated equipment that's being delivered to the plant, it doesn't surprise me that it's a few weeks late. We feel very, very good about that," said Cuomo.
"A lot of investors are betting against this company," says financial advisor Tony Ogorek, who is much less bullish on the company's future than is Cuomo.
Ogorek says the company's plummeting stock price reflects Wall Street's lack of faith in the company.
"If the stock continues to sell off, it's (the company) going to be locked out of the capital markets because it needs about three and a half billion dollars over the next couple of years to continue to float its boat.," says Ogorek.
Scott Brown: "The Governor has made a big bet on Solar City, would you say that's a prudent bet?"
"This isn't like investing a car plant, this isn't investing in something like Microsoft, it is speculative," says Ogorek. "I agree with the governor and his associates that renewables are going to be the wave of the future, the question here is do we believe that SolarCity model is going to be a survivor? And one of the problems when you've got start up industries like this is we really don't know who the survivor is going to be."
A SolarCity spokesman did not return our messages for comment about the company's future in Buffalo.