0:19 a lot of us still call this place Carousel Mall

Yesss finally my local mall. The mall is alive, but just barely thriving (even though it gets decently busy) IKEA is great, but most anchor stores are empty, national tenants that leave BARELY get replaced with national tenants. The “expansion” area is so empty on main corridors. I’d say probably like almost 1 million square feet of empty retail space is my estimate. These random pop up stores don’t last and is always junk. I want it to thrive but all my brands I shop at have left here so I go to eastview or Walden galleria 🤷‍♂️

Nordstrom rack was located next to cheesecake and the hot tub store was Saks OFF. The Funtivity arcade was a Lenox store at one point too. Before hobby lobby, it was vacant since the stores previously housed it left. The finish line store closed and JD Sports replaced the closed Abercrombie last year. Lastly, the hallway where Burlington is (past the weird ceiling) I believe is walled off as it used to be part of Filene’s basement at one point. against all odds was the vacant store at the end of that hallway to left , and glow golf was old navy before they moved. Regal was also just renovated, the old concession stand looked so much nicer, it was really retro. Lastly, the tropical restaurant on 3rd floor was margaritaville that closed last year (it wasn’t good food) and mall sued them on and off over years.

Sorry for all this, I just know so much since I’ve lived here my whole life and go once or twice a week 😂

When the mall was originally conceived, it had much grander plans. What ended up being the “expansion” was only 1/5 of what was planned but money and politics and bureaucracy ended up squashing most of what was envisioned. Hotels, indoor water park, amusements, etc were going to fill up most of the empty land that still surrounds the mall. It’s why it’s called “DestiNY USA.” It was going to be much more of a “destination.”What we ended up with is a proverbial “PSYCH!” Now they are trying to build an aquarium. We shall see how that pans out.

When I lived in Syracuse a few years ago people started to feel wary about the mall due to occurances of shootings/muggings around the mall. It definitely saw a decrease in traffic with people feeling less safe.

If you wanted to see a dead mall 25 mins west is the Fingerlakes mall. Dead mall is an understatement, it's buried and has been for about 10 years.

Feels so weird to have a YouTube video about a place only 15 minutes away from me lol, no matter how alive or dead it'll always hold a special place for me (but not as much as Great Northern did)

Destiny was meant to make the area a destination spot. the developers promised us so much more in the area that never happened. The only thing new that's currently be built an aquarium building. when the mall first opened the expansion it was a destination. We would actually have bus loads on the weekends from Canada.  business was so good back then that the syracuse area was highly benefitting from the sales tax revenue. There is a visible decline in visitors to the mall. the decline has caused the mall and most of its tenant to reduce there hours. back in the day most stores closed at 9pm, now most stores Monday through Thursday are closing at  6 to 7 pm. as for the crime at Destiny, many other larger malls have had crime issues as well. I blame mall management and the county and city, there is just as much crime around the city of Syracuse and not enough is being done to combat it. but Syracuses crime rate to average tonight cities it size. syracuse is still a destination during certain times off the years with the new york state fair and amphitheater which brings people from all over the state. the ever changing face of syracuse is about to change again. just north of syracuse with the building of a micron facility if built to what has been promised will bring thousands of new residents to the area. a few new businesses set to open in downtown syracuse as well in hope to get some people back to downyown.

This mall is failing on many levels, especially financial level. Constantly having to sue tenants for non-payment, stores closing unexpectedly overnight, loans defaulted, extended, defaulted. It's nothing that it was supposed to be. Not even close. They sold (suckered) Syracuse into a grand vision of an indoor canal with gondolas, a multi-story aquarium, an indoor water park. There's none of it. They scaled back and stopped expansion once they hit a certain point. Congel was an ehhphynn crook.

When I was a teen this mall was still just The Carousel Mall.  It was special to go bc I lived about 40 mins east of it.
Now it’s dying slowly.

I used to go to the Funny Bone a lot and walk around the mall after. This was late at night on a Saturday night. I never had an issue with crime at the mall, only a guy asking for money near the entrance once.

Nice to have a gigantic place to get some light winter exercise in upstate NY during the seven months of winter

I've been going to the mall since '91. I now live less than an hour walk from the mall. I stay away from the mall like the plague. I only go there (a freaking lot) with my family. The Regional Market nearby, less than a mile away, has an amazing flea market on Sundays. It's open,year round, and happens from 7 AM -1 PM.

I live in Syracuse. Remember this mall getting built and going there back in the day. It was great. Now to me its a pain in ass to walk a half mile to find that store I went for. Malls are

I'd say a thriving food court is a better indicator of how a mall is doing rather than it having an Apple Store.

I go here maybe 2-3 times a month (about an hour drive), it’s my favorite mall in the area. It can get really packed, especially on weekends, but even weekdays it still gets some decent traffic. I remember seeing some people talk about how dangerous it is there in the last couple years, I didn’t get it, in all my time going there over the years I’ve never once seen or had a bad experience.

I remember going when it first opened in 1990.. it was of course really busy and much more opulent than all the malls in the suburbs.  I think it accelerated the demise of many other malls in the area, like Penn Can, Camillus, Fayetteville, and Fairmount Fair.  Some were converted to strip malls with big box stores.  Others like Shoppingtown and Great Northern survived longer but were finally defeated by the pandemic and online shopping.  As mentioned, the plans for Destiny USA were much grander, but they were in way over their heads.  What they did add wiped out most of the outdoor parking around the original mall, thus the airport-terminal-like addition going to new parking lots.  After Carousel Center opened, carousels became a trend in some other malls, including Buckland Hills in CT which I moved near to after living in the Syracuse area.

Hidden gem of YouTube. Keep the mall videos coming 👍

This mall brings back so many childhood memories

Along with how Glow Golf was an Old Navy, there was also a CompUSA, Build-A-Bear (before it moved), craft store, local toy store, local pet store, and Kahunaville (which had incredibly creepy talking giant Tikis) on the commons level in the early 00s. It was the floor for kids my age at the time.

That’s a very busy food court!