ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Li-Cycle paused its massive construction project in Rochester earlier in October. The battery recycling company said then that they plan to stay in Rochester.

Shortly after the pause was announced, Li-Cycle’s stock took a nose dive: spelling trouble for their future plans. Local leaders like County Executive Adam Bello voiced concern, and Congressman Joe Morelle said he was “shocked.”

One point, their market cap was valued at over $1 billion, and as of Monday, it’s about $220 million.

Now, the approved federal loan of $375 million is valued at more than their market cap. Those funds and the county money have not been paid out yet.

Ethan Wade is a vice president of Brighton Securities. He points to a number of factors to the stock dive:

This facility represented such a large chunk of their growth — and therefore such a large part of their possible future success — that its pause led to this decline.

He adds that some big green energy companies are down 30%, though Li-Cycle is down 75%. That differential, he says, could indicate management problems. If that was determined to be the cause, Wade says a class-action lawsuit could happen.

But he says that going green is expensive, and rising interest rates and construction costs, are up. All in all, Wade says Li-Cycle’s fate is not sealed; he agrees that this is a story Rochesterians have heard before.

“We’ve seen this before,” he said. “We have this grand idea that this can put Rochester back on the map, and unfortunately it doesn’t come to fruition, as we’ve seen before. The stock price indicates there is a concern about the business, that the stock market has concern about the business. Ultimately we can make the case that they put too many of their eggs in one basket when it came to being able to build out this production facility, that hinges on the funding from the government.”

Wade says that the November 13 release of their financial statements is going to paint a much clearer picture of what will come for Li-Cycle and its investors.

News 8 has reached out to Li-Cycle for this story and has not heard back yet.