On Monday, January 22, 2001, the Onondaga County Legislature approved the expansion of the Carousel Center Mall in Syracuse NY. The expansion would transform the Carousel Center into the largest mall in the United States, measuring 4.7 million square feet. That is five hundred thousand square feet larger than the gargantuan Mall of Americas located in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Carousel Center will become more than just a mall-it will be a vast tourist attraction. Brandishing a four-story aquarium, 800 hotel rooms, an indoor golf range, an indoor bass fishing pond, and other entertainment facilities after the expansion is completed, the Carousel Center will be a mouth watering event.

That sounds like a pretty good deal. The Mall of Americas attracts forty million visitors each year, and makes a great deal of revenue for the state of Minnesota. There is no reason to expect any less success for the Carousel Center mall. But there are a few reasons why Syracuse natives are a bit hesitant to allow the mall to be expanded. About nine hundred million reasons. That is how much the expansion is going to cost Onondaga County taxpayers.

The Payments-In-Lieu-Of-Taxes agreement (PILOT) was specifically created for the expansion of the Carousel Center, and will be spread out over a 30-year period. The tax was dispersed over a period of three decades in order to soften the blow to Syracuse natives, whose economy has been struggling drastically. Nonetheless, the majority of Syracuse residents were vocal about their support of the expansion of the center.

"Anything that will bring attention to Central New York is good," said John Ramos, a senior Engineering major here at the University at Buffalo. "I live in Syracuse, and the place is just drab, to say the least. I can't see how spending the money now won't pay off in just a few years. There's going to be so many reasons to come to the mall and to Syracuse now."

The PILOT agreement Onondaga County Legislature passed 14-10, with the support of nine Republicans and five Democrats during the vote in January.

Many of the county officials said the huge volume of input they were getting from the public persuaded them to change their minds and vote in favor of the expansion.

Pyramid Companies, owner of the Carousel Center and Buffalo's Walden Galleria, will be responsible for the expansion of the mall. They will not have to pay property tax to the city government during the 30-year payment plan. Many lawmakers opposed giving up taxes from such a large source for so long, but others were weary of losing businesses and jobs to the southern states that offer more incentives for opening up a business. Pyramid Companies will be required to use the sales tax generated to construct new roads and repair existing ones to meet the anticipated demands on traffic, as well as to build parking lots for use in the center.

While Syracuse will lose one of its larger property tax income sources for the next three decades, it will gain in the short term, as Pyramid Companies will now have to pay for $250 million worth of parking garages and road work needed for the expansion that the City of Syracuse would normally have paid for. Also, revenue from sales tax is expected to more than offset any potential loss of property tax.

Even more positive are the improvements that the project will have on the job situation in Syracuse. Expansion of the Carousel Center is expected to create 11,000 new construction jobs and 8,900 permanent new jobs inside the mall itself. Independent consultants found that the sales tax generated by the expansion would far outweigh lost property taxes. The 8,900 permanent jobs created by the mall would potentially generate two billion into the local economy each year.

A committee of Onondaga County legislature and the Syracuse Common Council will watch Pyramid Companies closely. This committee will oversee and monitor the expansion of the Carousel Center.

"We think it's important to oversee all the information," Said common council President Matthew Driscoll, who will create the committee along with William E. Sanford, chairman of the county legislature.

The four-person committee will consist of a Republican and Democrat from each government body. The yet to be named committee officials will meet with Pyramid Cmpanies officials every three or four months to ensure expansion is heading in the direction they feel is best, as well as to discuss financial progress, job growth, and some other issues.

Amanda Nicholson, Director of the Retail Management Program at Syracuse University, appeared on Syracuse's National Public Radio's morning show, and said, "The concept in Minnesota is to get people to come hundreds of miles to see you. People fly from London to the Mall of America on planes, they come in from Japan; this is an event. I don't think they're flying from Japan because they can't buy stuff in Japan."

Not all residents are as optimistic. John Dales, a 29 year-old field technician for Verizon, offered his view on the effect that the original opening of the Carousel Center had on Syracuse.

"Not much really changed when it came in," Dales said. "Traffic around that area just increased. It was good in certain ways, at the time (of the opening) I was eighteen, and the extra commerce made it easier for a younger adult or a teenager to find a part-time job. But no one stays to use the surrounding business when they come now. The surrounding area, 7th North Street and the like, is just ugly. The legislature would be better off using those billion dollars for a little urban revival. People come, go in the mall, and leave as fast as they can. How will the bigger mall make any difference?"

If Pyramid Companies succeeds in making Carousel Center the largest mall in America-and by all current projections, they will-what will the Mall of Americas in Minnesota do? The Carousel Center is not the first challenger the Mall of Americas has seen. Mammoth malls in Pennsylvania, Illinois and California have claimed to have larger retail areas than the Mall of America, which has about 2.5 million square feet devoted just to shopping. But none are larger overall, nor have any had as much success.

The Carousel Center is the first true challenger to the Mall of Americas' status as the largest retail-entertainment complex in the United States. Even if Carousel Center does assume the throne, it may not hold it for long. The Mall of America is making plans for its own expansion, which would expand the Mall of Americas to five million square feet-larger than Carousel's finished product by some three hundred thousand square feet. Whether or not that is just a "spoiler" specification to draw attention away from the Carousel Center remains to be seen.

"You can't just up and expand the mall there (in Minnesota)," said Alison Chambers, an independent architect who lives in Syracuse. "You have to plan, propose, and get the local officials to agree, as well as find a way to raise the money to do it. Even if they do expand it, it won't be overnight. It took years of debate before the proposal to expand here was passed, and it's going to include a 30-year tax plan. Plus, what else can they put in that mall? A school that teaches you how to be a pro wrestler and a politician?"

Bob Conjule, the main developer for Pyramid Companies, who also appeared on National Public Radio's morning talk show on February 21, had this to say. "This is not a mall. I mean, it's a misnomer. I mean, this is a tourist attraction, and our goal is to bring people in from all over the world. And the great part of tourism [is] people come, they leave their money and then they leave."