Destiny USA

Destiny USA (stylized as destiny usa and also known by its former name Carousel Center) is a six-story, automobile-oriented super-regional shopping, dining, and entertainment complex on the shore of Onondaga Lake in the city of Syracuse, New York. It is the largest shopping mall in the state of New York and the 9th largest in the country. In 2021, Destiny USA was included among the top 20 most visited shopping centers in America, attracting over 26 million visitors a year.

Destiny USA opened on October 15, 1990, as Carousel Center. The mall has six aboveground floors and one underground floor. The lower three floors and the underground floor are used for retail shops. The first and second floors span the length of the mall and house the various shops, vendors, restaurants, and entertainment venues, with the major food court and namesake carousel located on the second floor. The third floor includes a 19-screen Regal Cinemas, restaurants, and entertainment options. The fourth floor is primarily administrative offices. The underground floor, known as the Commons floor, houses medium-sized stores, a chapel, kiosks, and two underground parking garages. The Commons floor does not span the full length of the mall, and is contained within the original mall structure built in 1990.

Destiny USA has outside parking surrounding the mall on nearly all sides. On the Hiawatha Boulevard side, additional parking lots are located across the street from the mall and a pedestrian bridge was built to connect the parking lot to the second floor of the 2012 addition. Parking includes one aboveground and two underground parking garages. The mall is served by CENTRO buses. There are main entrances on nearly all sides of the mall. Other entrances are located through the anchor stores and from the underground parking lots.

In response to a streak of crime starting in 2021, Destiny USA increased security and changed their visitor policy.

Background and construction
The site of Destiny USA was originally a landfill named Marley Scrap Yard, surrounded by several square blocks of oil tanks, collectively named "Oil City". South of these oil tanks sat the Franklin Square industrial neighborhood. In 1987, The Pyramid Companies studied redevelopment of the neighborhood. In July 1987, The Pyramid Companies announced plans for a 1000000 sqft shopping center at the scrap yard site. The plan caused controversy with other local shopping centers and malls. The Galleries of Syracuse, a smaller mall (now offices) had recently finished construction in Downtown Syracuse and there was concern that the mall at Oil City would put an end to downtown retail.

Two of the biggest opponents to the project were the competing mall developers in the area, Wilmorite Corp. and Eagan Real Estate Inc, which both operated several malls in Syracuse's suburbs. Wilmorite, which was building the Great Northern Mall in the nearby town of Clay, was accused by the Syracuse city government of using associates in Connecticut to form the "Citizen's League for an Environmentally Acceptable Northeast," which lobbied against construction of the Carousel Center mall at Oil City. Eagan meanwhile filed criticism of the mall, claiming that a 25-percent drop in downtown retail sales would occur if the mall were built. It proposed an additional downtown mall with a "Walt Disney-like attraction."

During construction the mall faced several delays, primarily around environmental cleanup, as the site is a brownfield cleanup site. The mall opened on October 15, 1990, as Carousel Center, named for the 1908 Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC) carousel, PTC #18 operating within the mall.

1990s
When it opened, Carousel Center featured a range of upscale and popular chains. Anchors included Bonwit Teller, Kaufmann's, Chappell's, Steinbach, JCPenney, Lechmere, and Hills. A basement "Commons" area featured covered parking and additional junior anchors, including The Rx Place and Filene's Basement.

Another unique feature of the mall was the Skydeck, which was on the top levels of the central tower. This offered an events space that would be used for fundraisers, proms, fashion shows, concerts, and many public and private uses.

In 1990, The Pyramid Companies began clearing oil tanks south of the mall for a strip center called Carousel Landing, which would feature 650,000 square feet of additional retail.

In 1992, Chappell's became The Bon Ton because of a merger with the parent company.

An additional anchor space was built for Lord & Taylor in 1994.

By 1995, Carousel Landing had still not been built due to its potential environmental impact. By 1996, The Pyramid Companies finally got approval to condemn the oil tanks.

In 1996, Steinbach was replaced with Home Place, a Northeast-based upscale home furnishings store. Nobody Beats the Wiz also opened in 1996 in the Commons level.

In November 1997, less than a month after Lechmere closed as a result of parent company Montgomery Ward eliminating the chain, the Pyramid Companies announced they would build an expansion to Carousel Center that would double the mall size instead of building Carousel Landing. Under this plan, the expansion would house about 150 new stores and three anchors, with many of the stores new to the market. The Pyramid Companies officials claimed the expansion would be complete by the year 2000.

In 1998, CompUSA store and a Kahunaville restaurant opened in the Commons Level and Best Buy opened in part of the former HomePlace/Steinbach location.

In 1999, Hills was acquired and rebranded by Ames Department Stores. In March 1999, DSW Shoe Warehouse opened in part of the former Lechmere. In October 1999, Bally Total Fitness opened with a grand opening featuring the cast of Baywatch. The Bally Total Fitness filled in the remaining part of HomePlace/Steinbach location that wasn't occupied by Best Buy.

2000s and potential expansions
In March 2000, Bonwit Teller shuttered their location at the mall as the chain filed for bankruptcy. In the same year, the space became the first American outpost and mall location for H&M. In May, Kaufmann's Furniture Galleries opened in the mall.

In 2001, The Pyramid Companies announced an expansion project which would triple the size of the mall, rather than doubling it as previously planned. The new project proposed to rename the mall from Carousel Center to "Destiny USA". The Skydeck was closed for new administrative offices for the complex. It would also create a large Central New York Visitors Center inside the mall. However, The Pyramid Companies needed public funds and tax breaks to make the project possible and people worried the mall would be obsolete before all of it was recompensated. Despite this, The Pyramid Companies continued to unveil further plans for Destiny USA. Eventually, the large tax breaks and the magnitude of the project would cause much controversy.

In 2004, DSW moved down into the Commons Level while Circuit City took its place. Circuit City previously operated a pocket store in the mall before closing in 2009, after the company failed to find a buyer for itself.

In August 2005, Sports Authority moved in as a new anchor store.

In September 2006, Kaufmann's became Macy's.

In 2007, The Pyramid Companies proposed the first phase of Destiny USA: a new addition that would add 800000 sqft to Carousel Center. This would make Destiny USA the largest mall in New York and the 6th largest in the country. The project was planned to be a green building, powered entirely by renewable resources.

In late 2009, it was announced that Destiny USA would use RFID technology, but would require tenants to turn over profits from the data tracking to Pyramid.

2010s: Expansion and name change
In May 2011, an agreement between Citigroup and The Pyramid Companies was finalized and the addition continued. Destiny USA was set to feature a retail mix including entertainment, luxury, and outlet stores. Documents from the trial showed several stores leased in the new expansion. In June 2011, the Syracuse Post-Standard asked people to email ideas of what people would like to see in Destiny USA to the newspaper, with Destiny officials following along. Residents listed several ideas, including entertainment venues like Dave & Buster's, and upscale restaurants like P.F. Changs, but nothing was officially announced.

In November 2011, Destiny USA became the largest mall in New York and the 6th largest in the country. Parts of the new addition opened, mostly featuring temporary holiday stores and signs advertising more stores planned for the future.

By late summer of 2012, the CarouselCenter.com webpage merged in with the DestinyUSA.com webpage, as new signage went up. In August 2012, the mall's name officially changed to "Destiny USA", ending all references to Carousel Center. New major stores in the mall included Burlington Coat Factory in the Commons level, Dick's Sporting Goods, and a P.F. Chang's restaurant. New amusement activities opened including WonderWorks, Dave and Buster's, Billy Beez Indoor Play Park, APEX Entertainment, a bowling and restaurant venue with a bar and dance area, RPM Raceway Indoor Karting, and Canyon Climb, the world's largest indoor rope course.

On June 14, 2013, Regal Cinemas opened their IMAX & RPX screens featuring Man of Steel in 3D. The IMAX & RPX feature a separate entrance and concession stand.

On January 4, 2015 it was announced via the Destiny USA website that Nordstrom Rack would be opening. The 33,357-square-foot store, located on the first level, opened in fall of 2015.

In October 2016, At Home opened as a new anchor, replacing Sports Authority, which closed as a result of the company’s bankruptcy.

A $48 million, seven story, 209-room Embassy Suites hotel opened at the Destiny complex in September 2017.

On October 9, 2019, A new LEGO store opened.

2020s
The dawn of the early 2020's saw several traditional department store retailers update their brick-and-mortar formats in response to the success of digital retailers during this time period.

In June 2020, JCPenney announced that it would close its Destiny USA location.

In August 2020, Lord & Taylor went bankrupt and closed all of its brick-and-mortar stores, as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, a new Regal Cinemas 4DX theater was announced, along with renovations to the theaters. An indoor trampoline park called Get Air was also announced.

An upstate New York mall manager said "Retailers were hesitant to sign deals during the pandemic, but as business is beginning to return to normal, leasing activity is picking up".

By 2023, Destiny USA also announced several newest additions, which include Anthropologie, Ardene, Dry Goods Earthbound Trading Co, FYE, Hugo Boss, Offline by Aerie, Lovisa, LoveSac, Hobby Lobby, Rue 21, Untuckit, and Urban Outfitters.

Between May and June 2023, Banana Republic and Sephora closed their stores in Destiny USA. In September of the same year, a representative of Newbury Comics revealed that the collectibles chain would open another location in Destiny USA in October. In the same month, Dry Goods USA, a national retailer that sells clothes for young women, opened on the second level of the mall.

In February 2024, it was announced that Forever 21 will be closing on March 31, 2024.

In March 2024, it was announced that Museum Of Intrigue would be closing the end of April which has been at the mall for 7 years.

On May 7, 2024, it was announced that At Home would be closing in August.

Crime and Safety
Beginning in 2021, a series of crimes inside and outside the mall led to increases in security.

On January 23, 2021, a 14-year-old boy was stabbed in the back near the Destiny USA parking lot. Two weeks later, Destiny USA announced a change to its parental escort policy. Before the change, minors only had to be accompanied by an adult from 4 p.m. to closing on Fridays and Saturdays. After the change, minors had to be accompanied by an adult at all times, every day. Destiny USA also gave the Syracuse Police Department (SPD) more space on the fifth floor so officers could have a "more expansive, functional work area."

On December 20, 2021, an unnamed man was shot in the leg at the upper parking lot of Destiny USA. Two months later, a gun was fired in a bathroom during an attempted robbery. Following this incident, Destiny USA hired two to five officers to work as security each day. After Juli Boeheim, wife to former basketball coach Jim Boeheim, had her purse stolen at gunpoint by a 12-year-old, Destiny USA hired more SPD officers to patrol the mall and its parking lots. In addition, probation officers were hired to make sure that individuals on probation weren't at the mall. On February 24, 2023, a 14-year-old shot at "a group he was in a dispute with." Four months later, an argument inside the mall escalated into a shooting outside one of the entrances of the mall.

These two shootings contributed to the 706 times that Syracuse police were called to the mall from the beginning of 2023 to June 13, 2023. Police were called the most for larceny with 147 calls. Following larceny, 24 calls were for nonviolent abuse toward family and 20 calls were for burglary. The number of police calls since January to June 13 was "nearly 200 higher than the call numbers in 2020, 2021, and 2022." Sergeant Matthew Malinowski, lieutenant at the time, said that the increase in crime was a result of more people coming to the mall after COVID-19.

By August 9, 2023, Destiny USA installed Flock Safety cameras at every vehicular entrance. The cameras track license plates and alert the police if a wanted or stolen vehicle arrives at the mall.