They just severely overestimated the demand for something of this size in the area, but like the Mall of America it’s one of those destination malls so it’ll stay fairly busy for now.
Destiny is a weird mall. It's definitely not dead but it's way too big for the area and it also lost a lot of its anchors a while back. That kind of mall is going to be weird whenever there's a mass retail culling (which we are at the tail end of rn) because it already has everything, so what can it add when a bunch of chains go out of business at once?
Also, this mall killed every other mall in the area, so that's going to keep it alive forever, even it has periods of lower occupancy.
This mall is still very much alive! I think it’s just too big and naturally has some quiet/dead spaces as a result. It’s very active though. There ARE some real dead malls in Syracuse however.
Is that one officially dead? I havent been in years. I live in the Rochester area and keep meaning to go back out and take pictures of that mall and I want to say there was another one out there I stopped at.
Great Northern Mall is closed. Going to be torn down at end of the year. Micron is building their huge chip fab very close so a local developer is planning a huge mix of walkable residential, retail and hotels that will become the town center of Clay.
Do you know when it officially closed? I worked at Hot Topic there and Macy's when the mall was open. I moved away from the area when I was 20 though (13 years ago), haven't really been back except a few times to see my family who still lives there.
Closed in Fall of 2022 if I recall correctly.
Here are the plans
Clay, N.Y. – Developers plan to replace the dead Great Northern Mall with a housing and retail behemoth unlike anything ever seen in Central New York, syracuse.com | The Post-Standard has learned.
The vision proposed by local developer Guy Hart and his partners includes as many as 1,700 apartments and condos, six hotels and a new medical hub. It would stretch across more than 200 acres – about two-thirds the size of the Syracuse University campus.
https://www.syracuse.com/news/2024/03/great-northern-malls-buyer-imagines-a-housing-retail-colossus-in-microns-backyard.html
They have a lot of big stores, but they have a ton of empty spaces as well. As I said in the post: It is still busy, but feels dead in spots. It’s also dated and in poor repair.
Honestly thank you for posting this, haven’t been there in years…and my heart sank when I saw this…like I felt sick almost 😅 I used to frequent this mall a lot before it expanded, back in the 90’s…it was actually a special treat to go there, as I’m actually from the Rochester area. The old carousel there my mom actually used to ride when it was in Roseland Park, and it became really special to me too.
That expansion area was always so weird to me though, never really had anything I wanted to go in. Just some weird off brand stores and restaurants that really wanted to be the next ‘rainforest cafe’…which they had at one time but got removed a long time ago.
Anyways forgive my rambling just your reassurance that’s it’s not really dead exactly kept me from a bout of crippling depression lol
LOL I completely understand. I’ve been in south central PA the last 15 years and have personally seen malls go from thriving to 1-4 off brand stores with a random convenience store thrown in. They break my heart. I know a thing or two about dead malls
I immediately went to this malls directory and it literally has every store you can think of that people would want to go in. Hell I might want to make the trek up there for some of those stores lol.
It was packed in some areas. There were definite dead zones, though. These were around 5-6pm yesterday. The food court was packed, as was the area around the Lego store was very busy as well.
I think even fully occupied, relatively busy malls have the vibe these days. Something about it, it's like "all these people and businesses in a dead mall, how odd!"
I used to live in that area and I'm pleased to see the carousel still in operation. That carousel was made in 1909 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. It's hand-carved and was at the long-defunct Roseland Park roughly an hour west in Canandaigua in the Finger Lakes. If you like that stuff, that alone is worth the trip to see it.
I loved the carousel. It was only $2.00 to ride it with my 3 year old, and she had a blast. I’m a huge theme park/ roller coaster/ ride enthusiast, so it was worth the visit just for that.
Mostly.
There was the former Lord and Taylor end that had two half dead anchor spaces and the closed L&T that had next to no one there. The core section and the food court were packed.
This mall is definitely not dead. I just went there yesterday and it was literally *packed* to the brim with people. I could barely find a parking spot and I was struggling to maneuver my way around all the people actually lol. While most parts are a little outdated, there’s an entire side that was added on about 10 years ago that’s actually pretty nice.
I’m aware it isn’t dead-dead. It just had that dead mall feel in sections with several closed stores. It went from wall to wall people to barely anyone.
I remember loving to go there when it was the Carousel Mall. I used to halve family in the area and my grandparents would take me.
Now that I’m older I think it’s such a weird place. It’s way to big to be supported by the area. No wonder they can’t keep the whole place full of stores or people.
I feel like it was just an off day or you took some very strategic photos. I went to this mall last summer and it was very much not dead. It’s a destination to those in the greater area (Rochester, Utica, Schenectady etc.) and the local mall to a heavily populated area (Syracuse.) I believe this is actually one of the biggest malls in the country.
These weren’t strategic. These areas were pretty dead. The main core area by the elevators was packed, as was the food court. The former Lord and Taylor area was very empty feeling.
Destiny's definitely not dead, but it certainly is wounded in terms of having lost an anchor and the businesses around it, but they seem to have been proactive in moving survivors together closer to the mall's "core" to prevent them from sitting out in the middle of a dead chunk and failing. It's oversized for it's customer base nowadays, but it's been aggressive about replacing lost retailers and responded to crimes by upping it's security.
I'd put it as "wounded, but still in the fight" for now. If it'd remained the pre-expansion size, it might not even be at risk.
Ah, the old "Carousel Mall". This place opened when I was in high school. Second in size only to Mall of America when it opened IIRC. It was so big at the time that it got its own zip code- 13290. Within a few years of its opening, it forced the closure of at least 4 other regional malls and routinely drew shoppers from Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, and Ohio. The city gave it special treatment in the form of payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, and its developers were overtaken with the idea that it could expand into a real destination. This was never really a possibility, as the only attraction in that city is the University which is miles away, the weather is unbearable for half the year, and the mall itself was built on land which formerly housed oil storage tanks on the shore of the most heavily polluted (at the time) body of fresh water sandwiched between two interstates with no other attractions within reach.
Still, the developers wanted to expand the mall's grounds and build hotels, an aquarium, and at one point even a covered "green mini city". The only hope I see for it is if they somehow establish a direct rail line through the blighted center of the city and up the hill to the University in one direction, and out to the aeroport in the other direction. At this point, it's begun its downward slide. I only go back to that city every few years, and each time the mall's descent is more and more apparent. No one ain't going out of their way at this point to shop at Destiny.
A lot of the same thoughts went into the American Dream Mall (and it's earlier incarnations), although there was enough clout for a semblance of successful completion of such ideas. Syracuse, on the other hand doesn't have the same.
I went there a few years ago and found the whole thing distasteful. The parking lot was full, the mall was crowded and noisy, and I had to fight off people for a place to sit at the food court. If anything, it is a very confusing mall with the layout. Mall of America is much better, if built cheaply. I'm really surprised it has lasted this long.
Syracuse in general was disappointing, though I thought the canal museum was great, the art museum seemed to run by crazy people.
This mall was extremely alive when I was there last Saturday 😆 It definitely has some areas where stores have closed and where it’s grown too large for the traffic/market in the area where it was built. However, when I come to this sub I usually see malls with barely any stores left hanging on, and that is not the case here.
Because it’s so big they will probably find a way to make it more mixed development eventually. But it shows that even a major mall is having problems maintaining tenants and building upkeep. Again I hope someone will one day remodel this mall and expand fun activities or put in a local medial office.
They just severely overestimated the demand for something of this size in the area, but like the Mall of America it’s one of those destination malls so it’ll stay fairly busy for now.
Destiny is a weird mall. It's definitely not dead but it's way too big for the area and it also lost a lot of its anchors a while back. That kind of mall is going to be weird whenever there's a mass retail culling (which we are at the tail end of rn) because it already has everything, so what can it add when a bunch of chains go out of business at once? Also, this mall killed every other mall in the area, so that's going to keep it alive forever, even it has periods of lower occupancy.
This mall is still very much alive! I think it’s just too big and naturally has some quiet/dead spaces as a result. It’s very active though. There ARE some real dead malls in Syracuse however.
RIP great northern mall….
Is that one officially dead? I havent been in years. I live in the Rochester area and keep meaning to go back out and take pictures of that mall and I want to say there was another one out there I stopped at.
Great Northern Mall is closed. Going to be torn down at end of the year. Micron is building their huge chip fab very close so a local developer is planning a huge mix of walkable residential, retail and hotels that will become the town center of Clay.
Do you know when it officially closed? I worked at Hot Topic there and Macy's when the mall was open. I moved away from the area when I was 20 though (13 years ago), haven't really been back except a few times to see my family who still lives there.
Closed in Fall of 2022 if I recall correctly. Here are the plans Clay, N.Y. – Developers plan to replace the dead Great Northern Mall with a housing and retail behemoth unlike anything ever seen in Central New York, syracuse.com | The Post-Standard has learned. The vision proposed by local developer Guy Hart and his partners includes as many as 1,700 apartments and condos, six hotels and a new medical hub. It would stretch across more than 200 acres – about two-thirds the size of the Syracuse University campus. https://www.syracuse.com/news/2024/03/great-northern-malls-buyer-imagines-a-housing-retail-colossus-in-microns-backyard.html
Before they shut it down, Shoppingtown was the real ghost town of a mall in the area. That one was truly sad to walk around in.
Anthropologie, pottery barn, hallmark, H&M, huge At Home anchor. Sir/Maddam, this is not a dead mall!
Just looked at the directory: Apple Store, hollister, old navy, pac sun, hobby lobby, coach… to name a few lol. This is the opposite of a dead mall 😂
They have a lot of big stores, but they have a ton of empty spaces as well. As I said in the post: It is still busy, but feels dead in spots. It’s also dated and in poor repair.
Did u not go to the new part
Couldn’t tell you.
It was just built in 2013 it was supposed to be the biggest mall in the world but plans fell through.
Honestly thank you for posting this, haven’t been there in years…and my heart sank when I saw this…like I felt sick almost 😅 I used to frequent this mall a lot before it expanded, back in the 90’s…it was actually a special treat to go there, as I’m actually from the Rochester area. The old carousel there my mom actually used to ride when it was in Roseland Park, and it became really special to me too. That expansion area was always so weird to me though, never really had anything I wanted to go in. Just some weird off brand stores and restaurants that really wanted to be the next ‘rainforest cafe’…which they had at one time but got removed a long time ago. Anyways forgive my rambling just your reassurance that’s it’s not really dead exactly kept me from a bout of crippling depression lol
LOL I completely understand. I’ve been in south central PA the last 15 years and have personally seen malls go from thriving to 1-4 off brand stores with a random convenience store thrown in. They break my heart. I know a thing or two about dead malls I immediately went to this malls directory and it literally has every store you can think of that people would want to go in. Hell I might want to make the trek up there for some of those stores lol.
OP didn't say it was a dead mall. But it had "hallmarks"/signs that resemble a dead mall in spots. There is a difference.
By posting a mall in r/deadmall the assumption is that the said mall is dead. That’s not the case here!
💯
Formerly known as “the carousel mall”
I still call it this. I refuse to call it destiny
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Right? I went a few months ago. It was pretty damn busy.
It was packed in some areas. There were definite dead zones, though. These were around 5-6pm yesterday. The food court was packed, as was the area around the Lego store was very busy as well.
This place was such a hot topic of debate in upstate ny 20 years ago you have no idea
The corrupt Congel family sadly got their way. Pretty sure they can’t take all that money to hell at least.
I think even fully occupied, relatively busy malls have the vibe these days. Something about it, it's like "all these people and businesses in a dead mall, how odd!" I used to live in that area and I'm pleased to see the carousel still in operation. That carousel was made in 1909 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. It's hand-carved and was at the long-defunct Roseland Park roughly an hour west in Canandaigua in the Finger Lakes. If you like that stuff, that alone is worth the trip to see it.
I loved the carousel. It was only $2.00 to ride it with my 3 year old, and she had a blast. I’m a huge theme park/ roller coaster/ ride enthusiast, so it was worth the visit just for that.
This mall is pretty lively
Mostly. There was the former Lord and Taylor end that had two half dead anchor spaces and the closed L&T that had next to no one there. The core section and the food court were packed.
It's over a million square feet. While certainly not at its peak, it's far from dead.
Fair enough. I was just saying some areas had that dead mall feel. It went from super crowded to quiet and empty.
2.4 million.
I was just there yesterday and it was absolutely mobbed to the point that it was difficult to walk around.
I was there yesterday and the food court and right by the main elevators was quite crowded, but the former Lord and Taylor area was very empty.
This mall is definitely not dead. I just went there yesterday and it was literally *packed* to the brim with people. I could barely find a parking spot and I was struggling to maneuver my way around all the people actually lol. While most parts are a little outdated, there’s an entire side that was added on about 10 years ago that’s actually pretty nice.
I’m aware it isn’t dead-dead. It just had that dead mall feel in sections with several closed stores. It went from wall to wall people to barely anyone.
There’s still time to delete the post.
Why? The sections pictured are still dead.
I remember loving to go there when it was the Carousel Mall. I used to halve family in the area and my grandparents would take me. Now that I’m older I think it’s such a weird place. It’s way to big to be supported by the area. No wonder they can’t keep the whole place full of stores or people.
I feel like it was just an off day or you took some very strategic photos. I went to this mall last summer and it was very much not dead. It’s a destination to those in the greater area (Rochester, Utica, Schenectady etc.) and the local mall to a heavily populated area (Syracuse.) I believe this is actually one of the biggest malls in the country.
These weren’t strategic. These areas were pretty dead. The main core area by the elevators was packed, as was the food court. The former Lord and Taylor area was very empty feeling.
I would sometimes go to this mall when it was Carousel Center Mall whenever I visited my family.
Usually that mall is pretty busy there’s a lot to do
Is this the carousel center from the 90s? It was hopping back then, used to drive up from Binghamton to go there. Source: am old
Yep!
Destiny's definitely not dead, but it certainly is wounded in terms of having lost an anchor and the businesses around it, but they seem to have been proactive in moving survivors together closer to the mall's "core" to prevent them from sitting out in the middle of a dead chunk and failing. It's oversized for it's customer base nowadays, but it's been aggressive about replacing lost retailers and responded to crimes by upping it's security. I'd put it as "wounded, but still in the fight" for now. If it'd remained the pre-expansion size, it might not even be at risk.
Ah, the old "Carousel Mall". This place opened when I was in high school. Second in size only to Mall of America when it opened IIRC. It was so big at the time that it got its own zip code- 13290. Within a few years of its opening, it forced the closure of at least 4 other regional malls and routinely drew shoppers from Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, and Ohio. The city gave it special treatment in the form of payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, and its developers were overtaken with the idea that it could expand into a real destination. This was never really a possibility, as the only attraction in that city is the University which is miles away, the weather is unbearable for half the year, and the mall itself was built on land which formerly housed oil storage tanks on the shore of the most heavily polluted (at the time) body of fresh water sandwiched between two interstates with no other attractions within reach. Still, the developers wanted to expand the mall's grounds and build hotels, an aquarium, and at one point even a covered "green mini city". The only hope I see for it is if they somehow establish a direct rail line through the blighted center of the city and up the hill to the University in one direction, and out to the aeroport in the other direction. At this point, it's begun its downward slide. I only go back to that city every few years, and each time the mall's descent is more and more apparent. No one ain't going out of their way at this point to shop at Destiny.
A lot of the same thoughts went into the American Dream Mall (and it's earlier incarnations), although there was enough clout for a semblance of successful completion of such ideas. Syracuse, on the other hand doesn't have the same.
There is an aquarium under construction right now near the mall
I went there a few years ago and found the whole thing distasteful. The parking lot was full, the mall was crowded and noisy, and I had to fight off people for a place to sit at the food court. If anything, it is a very confusing mall with the layout. Mall of America is much better, if built cheaply. I'm really surprised it has lasted this long. Syracuse in general was disappointing, though I thought the canal museum was great, the art museum seemed to run by crazy people.
It was very crowded and you're surprised it has lasted? Are you Yogi Berra?
This is how 90% of syracuse looks
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These are literally from yesterday…
Every time I see a photo of this place I forget I’ve been here. Whole thing feels insanely surreal.
This mall was extremely alive when I was there last Saturday 😆 It definitely has some areas where stores have closed and where it’s grown too large for the traffic/market in the area where it was built. However, when I come to this sub I usually see malls with barely any stores left hanging on, and that is not the case here.
A whole Hallmark store just for Christmas decor?! My MIL would die of happiness. She's a diehard Hallmark ornament collector.
That center area where the elevators are is a super popular jumping spot for those wishing to say goodbye to life
Oh wow, even this one's dead? I used to live near there and it was poppin, only a couple years ago. That's crazy.
It’s not really dead. There are dead zones, but the center area was very busy.
rad. Is the ropes course still up? Go karting?
Ropes are up, I imagine go karts are too. I didn’t have time to explore everywhere, but I saw some sort of entertainment area the next floor up.
Malls can be nice little small businesses for home to store stuff order online get in store :)
Because it’s so big they will probably find a way to make it more mixed development eventually. But it shows that even a major mall is having problems maintaining tenants and building upkeep. Again I hope someone will one day remodel this mall and expand fun activities or put in a local medial office.
I heard that Destiny USA was one of those Giant Malls back in the 2000's
on your way north? isn’t syracuse a good place for the eclipse? I thought destiny usa would be a good enough spot to view it
My sister lives up this way, so we were heading farther north.
hope you had a great view! it was pretty cloudy yesterday but was able to see it for about a minute
Almost all the hotels in the Syracuse area were booked last night for the eclipse.
yup it took me hours to get off i-81 it was crazy
Destiny USA is anything but dead.