Funding, Hoteliers Set for $1.8B Destiny USA

NEW YORK CITY-Officials at Syracuse-based the Pyramid Co.’s say they have received approval on $2.2 billion in bond funding for the $1.8-billion Destiny USA retail/entertainment complex, and that commitments from hotel operators for the 4000 rooms included in the project are in place. In addition, $750,000 in federal funding for the 100,000-sf Upstate New York International Tourism Center at the facility has been firmed up.

The 150-acre Syracuse retail and entertainment center, said to be the largest private-sector investment of its kind in state history, will have some features open to the public within a year, Pyramid officials say. The project is a massive expansion of the existing 1.6 million-sf Carousel Center mall, located in the 800-acre Onondaga Lakefront tourism district. It is expected to be fully operational by 2004.

The size of the original Carousel Center will be increased by more than four million sf, though project officials say it is impossible to calculate the actual size of the Destiny USA development because it has so many non-traditional elements. Pyramid executive Mike Lorenz also says published reports stating that Destiny USA will essentially be a knockoff of Minneapolis’ hugely successful Mall of America are way off base.