Tax exemptions for the ongoing Carousel Center expansion will continue for another six months following an additional deadline extension for the completion of the project’s first phase.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner said the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency voted on an agreement Monday to extend the Destiny USA project’s tax exempt status in return for $1.5 million paid by the developer, Pyramid Cos.

The $1.5 million will be paid in three $500,000 installments — the first is expected to be paid Tuesday, the second in 30 days and the third in 60 days, Miner said in a video of a news conference Monday. Because the first phase of the Destiny USA project now has a temporary certificate of occupancy, the developer is also obligated to pay an additional $4 million annual payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement starting Jan. 1, Miner said.

The city would receive $2.73 million and the county would receive the remaining $1.27 million from the PILOT agreement, Miner said. She also said the $4 million increment will increase by 4 percent each year and will be paid for as long as bonds are outstanding on the existing mall, which will take approximately 20 years.

‘The time that we gave the developers in exchange for those payments has given them an opportunity to make an empty expansion into a performing asset,’ Miner said.

The 2.4-million-square-foot Destiny USA project involves the addition of new retail, entertainment and dining options to the existing Carousel Center. The expanded space will celebrate its grand opening in spring 2012, said Destiny USA executive team member David Aitken in an email.

After the developer received a temporary certificate of occupancy, putting the property on the tax rolls was not an option, which prompted the decision to extend the deadline and tax exemption status for the project, said William Ryan, chair of SIDA, in an email.

Pyramid did not have a temporary certificate of occupancy in June, when it was granted a deadline extension set to end this month. Both SIDA and Pyramid were aware of the approaching deadline and knew the developer was not yet in compliance with the agency agreement to begin phase two, Ryan said.

Ryan declined to comment on what the deadline extension means for the project, but said SIDA is ‘trying to cooperate at a price for the citizens of Syracuse to help take a big vacant box’ and turn it into something functional.

Though construction is still underway, areas of the expansion are open for public viewing. A corridor lined with small kiosks open for business leads to a larger area where stores will eventually open.

Barbara Janice, an employee at Cindy’s Gift Solutions, a kiosk located in the recently opened part of the expansion, said customers tend to be enthusiastic upon seeing the expansion and its progress.

Janice, a Syracuse resident, said she doesn’t think the deadline extension will hurt mall business because it’s just another ‘hoop and hurdle’ for the project.

Said Janice: ‘It’s eventually going to get there.’

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Published on December 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm

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