SYRACUSE, NY – Destiny USA is the largest shopping center in New York, a six-story structure near Lake Onondaga. Its attraction is WonderWorks, a 40,000 square meter theme park where children can experience a simulated earthquake, learn about space travel wearing an astronaut suit or play laser tag.
It could, that is, until the state made the mall close many of its attractions in November for the second time last year to counter Covid-19. Only 18% of the space rented to entertainment tenants is currently open, said a spokesman for the mall’s owner, Pyramid Management Cos.
Adding theme park attractions has been a strategy that Pyramid has considered crucial in attracting pedestrian traffic and reversing the years-long struggles of mall operators struggling with online shopping. Now, the strategy looks less like a lifeline and more like a millstone.
Although new pandemic measures have allowed the mall’s stores to reopen, regulations have kept many of its entertainment attractions closed. The privately owned pyramid has borrowed heavily to expand and build entertainment extravagances at Destiny USA and another mall, Palisades Center in West Nyack, NY, and the bills are due.
In April, the pyramid entities operating the two malls became delinquents on secured debt called mortgage-backed securities or CMBS, according to real estate data provider Trepp LLC, which is finally negotiating extensions and deferrals.