Perhaps there will come a time when Syracuse will cease to be manipulated by greedy corporations, but for now it appears to be Syracuse’s destiny.

The company behind the Destiny USA shopping mall has announced plans to move forward with building a 209-room hotel across the street from the shopping center. This in itself is perfectly fine, but what has spurred public debate is Pyramid Management Group’s  — Destiny USA’s parent company’s — announcement that it will be seeking $6.84 million in tax exemptions from the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA).

In a public hearing on Friday, citizens presented mixed opinions with a majority appearing to back the tax breaks: Syracuse.com reported that those in favor of the tax breaks outnumbered those against three to one with a majority citing the jobs the project would create as the ultimate decision-making factor.

And grievances by those who oppose the tax exemptions are certainly justified: Destiny’s proposed concessions to the OCIDA are not nearly enough to justify the proposal and Destiny should fund the hotel itself. As appealing as the jobs prospects are for city residents, betting tax revenue on a project that has no guaranteed success is a wager Syracuse — and its citizens that benefit from programs funded by tax money — cannot afford to make.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner rightfully acknowledged in a statement earlier this month that the corporation has and will continue to garner more than $700 million dollars in tax savings due to a disastrous 30-year payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) arranged for the mall’s expansion back in 2000.

Considering the meeting was held at 9 a.m. on a Friday when most people’s work days are just starting, it is clear that neither Destiny nor OCIDA care much about city residents’ opinions. This apathy is readily apparent in the relatively small compromises that Destiny is offering for the tax exemptions: 15 percent of the contractors hired to build the hotel will be minority- and/ or women-owned business, and 50 percent of the finished hotel’s 74 workers will be Syracuse residents. If Destiny wants to win back the city, it should start with larger hiring quotas.

The Urban Jobs Task Force, a Syracuse-based organization which aims to create local jobs, has argued that these figures are simply unacceptable and have called for at least 20 percent of the contractors to be minority- or women-headed businesses and 20 percent of the construction workers be Syracuse residents.

In either case, the jobs that would be created do not begin to compare to the $6.84 million dollars in tax revenue the city and county would lose if entered into the deal. Destiny, which has a history of entering into deals with the city only to back out, offers up the paltry sums of $200,000 and $75,000 if it fails to reach its self-imposed hiring and employment goals. Not only are these objectives far too low for the scope of the project, the penalties for not sticking to them provide little insurance on the sizable investment Onondaga County would be making.

Aggie Lane, president of the Urban Jobs Task Force, was quick to cite that OCIDA’s involvement is unusual as city projects are typically off limits to the larger county group and is an overstep of the agency’s bounds.

“There is already a Syracuse Industrial Development Agency set up,” Lane said. “There has been a tacit agreement between them (Syracuse Industrial Development Agency) and OCIDA that projects in Syracuse would be handled by the Syracuse agency rather than the broader Onondaga county agency.”

In contrast, Destiny representatives argue that building the hotel will create more tourism for the city, especially from Canadian visitors that may need a place to stay. Once those tourists arrive, it’s likely they will also spend money not just on Destiny, but other city businesses.  This potential revenue may be hard to turn away. However, this is a gamble — a gamble that uses tax revenue as a wager.

With tourism from Canada dropping due to currency exchange rates, Destiny’s strategy to draw visitors back to Syracuse beyond building the hotel is unknown. With a turbulent and uncertain future facing the city and its economy, the assured property tax revenue the city would earn is by far the safer and smarter option than gambling on the deceitful Destiny.

“There should be no deal because Destiny has taken so much already,” said Lane. “If they want the hotel, they can build it themselves.”

The hotel would be a great fixture for Syracuse, but Destiny, as a part of a larger corporation, should tap into its own expansive resources to carry out the project without trying to bleed money out of a struggling city.

If Destiny builds the hotel itself and gives back to the community with employment agreements and hiring deals, the corporation could work to repair some of the bad blood rightfully earned with the city to undo more than a decade of mistrust and work toward a relationship that benefits the two intertwined entities.

Theo Horn is a sophomore political science and public policy dual major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at tahorn@syr.edu.

Published on March 28, 2016 at 2:19 am