Onondaga County announced Thursday a $400 million plan to redevelop Shoppingtown Mall into a mixed-use town center in Dewitt with hundreds of new housing units, green spaces and a retail district with shops, restaurants, and a potential grocery store.
“We like to think of ourselves as human ecologists,” said Mark Falcone, the founder and CEO of Continuum Partners, the county’s planned developer. “We are essentially in the business of building the human habitat.”
Falcone is a self-described 5th generation CNYer, although he is now based in Colorado. He explained that his time on the boards of nature conservancies had taught him about the way scientists think about the ecology of other species, inspiring him to be more thoughtful about the environment humans lived in.
Continuum Partners previously developed a downtown transportation hub in Denver, CO.
Redeveloping ShoppingTown will be a $400 million project completed in phases over 6 to 10 years. The land has sat empty for several years. The county went to court to take the property after the mall’s owner stopped paying taxes.
A previous plan to redevelop the mall fell through when developers who owned the Macy’s and Sear’s buildings of the mall walked away from the table. The county took those spaces through eminent domain.
“It took us a while to get here, but we stuck it,” said County Executive Ryan McMahon. “We made a promise to the town of Dewitt to get this right. I think we’ve gotten it right, and now we will execute.”
To promote accountability, the county will hand over control of the land in phases. The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency will only transfer the land once specific milestones, including approvals, construction benchmarks, and financing commitments, have been passed.
Continuum Partners is set to pay the county an aggregate $16.1 million for the property. About half of that will go towards paying back an OCIDA loan, while the remaining $8 million will go to the county’s general fund.
This story will be updated. Check back later.
