It will also have an $18-million to $20-million wastewater treatment plant able to take in up to 1,200 gallons of water a minute and recycle up to 75% of the water the factory will use.

Crews began putting up the plant’s structural steel in mid-February. Roofers and plumbers started working at the site in the spring. It is such a big building, “you can’t wait for one guy to get out of the way so you can begin,” Ciminelli says.

The factory will require 14 million pounds of structural steel, delivered in three to seven loads of steel a day. The project topped out in the first half of July.

The plan is to finish enclosing the factory’s shell by October so SolarCity can start bringing in its equipment. Testing and production will begin next year, with full production expected in the first quarter of 2017.

At its peak, the SolarCity work site is expected to employ 1,460 workers, with another 1,440 jobs created at the facility’s suppliers and service providers in the Buffalo area. “It has been a real game changer for Buffalo,” Frank Ciminelli says.

When the factory is running at capacity, “there will be more people working at SolarCity than there were when Republic Steel was at the height of its operations,” Doyle says.