Destiny USA - History - Mid To Late 2000s

Mid To Late 2000s

In August 2005, Sports Authority moved into a part of Ames (the rest of the store remains vacant) and in November 2005, Steve & Barry's University Sportswear opened in the former Kahunaville restaurant.

In September 2006, Kaufmann's was converted into a Macy's, though the Kaufmann's Furniture Galleries was closed. Federated also closed down CompUSA earlier that year, which it owned at the time.

In 2007, Pyramid Companies moved forward with the first phase of Destiny USA (the NY no longer emphasized at this point): a new addition that would add 800,000 square feet to Carousel Center. Part of Borders was closed down, including the exterior entrance. Additionally, H&M's exterior entrance was sealed, demolishing a covered drive-up dating back to the days as a Bonwit Teller. The project was planned to be a green building, powered entirely by renewable resources. Preparatory groundwork for the first phase, an 1,300,000-square-foot (120,000 m2) expansion of the 1,500,000-square-foot (140,000 m2) Carousel Center, began in April, 2007, and pile driving for the structure's foundation began on August 9, 2007. Above-ground construction began on March 28, 2008.

The Pyramid Companies never announced any tenants for this new addition. In August 2008, it was announced that about 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) would be dedicated to a "Made in Italy" section with 27,000 square feet (2,500 m2) for restaurants, wine bars, and coffee bars and 150 stores with Italian brands and products.

Despite the fact that Steve & Barry's closed in late 2008, and Circuit City closed in early 2009 due to the respective bankruptcies, Pyramid announced that the new addition would be called "Arendi", which would not feature a miniature re-creation of the Erie Canal as planned. Shortly thereafter, Citigroup, the primary construction lender, stopped funding the Destiny USA project. Citigroup said that Destiny USA had no tenants lined up for the mall expansion and wanted Pyramid to cover 15.2 million dollars in cost overruns. As a result, construction came to a virtual halt with the last work happening in August 2009, when workers enclosed the unfinished addition.

During this time, it was leaked that Arendi would use RFID technology but required tenants to turn over profits to Destiny USA. As courtroom battles continued during this time, and the mall cycled through tenants. A short-lived Ultimate Electronics (in the old Circuit City space) opened in August 2010 but closed in April 2011. Borders closed in January 2011 due to lease disagreements, months before the chain would go out of business as a whole.

In May 2011, an agreement between Citigroup and Congel was finalized and the addition continued. This time, the "Arendi" name and scheme was dropped in favor of a retail mix featuring entertainment, luxury stores, and outlet stores. Documents from the trail show several stores in the new expansion are leased, including Off 5th. A Q&A with Syracuse Post-Standard was done in June asking what would people like to see in Destiny USA, with Destiny officials listening in. Residents listed several ideas, including entertainment venues like Dave & Buster's, upscale department stores like Neiman Marcus, restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory, but nothing was officially announced. It is mentioned that the "Made In Italy" feature had fallen through.

During the summer and into the fall, many new tenants were announced for the addition, including The Melting Pot, Revolutions bowling alley, Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill, Lenox china, and many others. In November 2011, parts of the new addition opened mostly featuring temporary holiday stores and signs showing yet to come. About this time, but announced earlier that year Forever 21 and H&M essentially switched places, with H&M taking a large in-line space that replaced the old Forever 21 and part of the Borders, while Forever 21 moved to the old H&M, which extruded the original storefront.

In June 2012, it was announced that any further expansions to Destiny USA (including the glass enclosed park, water features, hotels and technology park) were officially cancelled.

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 Off 5th.