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Nothing like it in the world,”
claims the promotional literature for a resort destination currently
in the planning stages. Here are the stats so far:
Name: DestiNY USA
Location: Syracuse, NY
Scope: The existing 1.6 million-square-
foot Carousel Center mall plus an additional 3.5 million square
feet of entertainment, retailing, recreation, dining; more than
4,000 hotel rooms
Cost: in excess of $2 billion including
$1.3 billion private sector investment Government funding: both
federal and state monies have been secured
Economic impact: 35 million visitors
per year will add more than $6.1 billion into the upstate New York
economy annually with an economic impact of $12.5 billion statewide
As impressive as they are, these numbers tell only a fraction of
the story. The project will be enclosed under a 65-acre glass sky
atrium and will house a 25,000 seat amphitheater, driving range,
water park, ball fields, an indoor 1,200-foot-long replica of the
Erie Canal complete with boats, and a state-of-the-art salt water
aquarium. It will revolve around seven Lifestyle Zones, each designed
to appeal to a particular demographic including sports enthusiasts,
families with children, shoppers—both bargain hunters and luxury—as
well as locals and tourists looking for varied dining or entertainment
experiences.
DestiNY USA is being developed by The Pyramid Companies, the largest
shopping center developer and manager in the Northeast, and has
been in the planning stages for almost two years, far enough along
that construction documents were complete enough for the work of
building the project to begin. And then—something happened.
Robert Congel, Pyramid Companies’ founder and senior managing
partner, invited two dozen of the nation’s leading experts
on environmental design and construction to a weekend retreat to
begin the process of changing the face of the project from one of
the largest developments in New York State to one of the greenest.
“Our goal,” said Congel, “is to bring in the very
best people in the world to make this project the global model for
environmentally responsible design, construction and land use. We
are working to make DestiNY USA ‘climate positive’ using
no fossil fuels, while lowering our construction and operating costs,
ensuring that DestiNY USA will be the international center for environmental
excellence.” Congel made the decision to go green within the
last year following his introduction to his first green building
in Albany, NY. The events of September 11 also convinced him of
the urgent need for the United States to end its dependence on foreign
oil, and finally, he says, “I have 17 grandchildren and I want
them to grow up in a better world.”
The project, to be located on a brownfield site formally known as
“Oil City” near downtown Syracuse, was already helping
to reclaim a long blighted area, but the new goals formulated at
the retreat charette are far more comprehensive. Clean, healthy
air is one of Congel’s priorities, and the technological challenges
of creating an indoor environmental system under a dome to meet
that objective are daunting. Relying solely on renewable resources
such as biomass, geothermal and solar to generate power is equally
intimidating, but Congel’s passion and commitment are strong.
Current and potential partnerships with Syracuse University, the
U.S. EPA, U.S. DOE, U.S. DOT, the New York State Center of Excellence
in Environmental Systems and the New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority (NYSERTA) will further help assure the
viability of the green efforts.
Rick Fedrizzi, the founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council
and one of the organizers of the retreat, believes that “the
developer’s commitment to transforming a brownfield site into
DestiNY USA, combined with the experience and intellectual resources
of the team will result in the establishment of a new global standard
for environmental responsibility.”
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