Destiny USA in 2026: Margaritaville out, Regal’s $15 million rebuild, IKEA on the way

By Matt Russo, Staff Reporter

Destiny USA is closing one chapter and opening several others in 2026. Margaritaville, the Jimmy Buffett themed restaurant that anchored the third floor dining floor for a decade, has shut its doors. Regal Cinemas is midway through a full gut renovation of its 19 screen multiplex, one of the largest single tenant investments at the mall in years. And Pyramid Management Group, the Syracuse based developer that owns the 2.4 million square foot complex, is filling the pipeline with new leases, a 40,000 square foot indoor pickleball club, and a 14,000 square foot virtual reality venue on the way.

Margaritaville exits after 10 years

Destiny USA and Margaritaville Holdings announced in January 2025 that the two sides had made what the mall described as a mutual business decision to part ways as the restaurant’s lease expired. The Syracuse location opened in the summer of 2015, which made it one of a short list of Margaritaville sites in the Northeast and a trophy tenant for the Canyon, the third floor food and entertainment concourse that Pyramid carved out during the 2012 expansion.

The restaurant spanned roughly 12,500 square feet with a two story dining room, an outdoor patio overlooking the Oil City parking deck, and a retail shop selling branded flip flops and margarita mix. Live music, karaoke nights, and the rotating volcano bar drew steady traffic in the first years after opening, but regional dining competition from Dave and Buster’s, The Cheesecake Factory, and Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill (which itself shuttered in 2017) ate into the concept over time.

Rob Schoeneck, general manager of Destiny USA, called Margaritaville a treasured part of the mix over the past decade and said the space will be backfilled as part of the broader third floor repositioning that Pyramid is pitching to tenants and brokers in 2026.

Regal pours $15 million into a full theater rebuild

On the same third floor, Regal Cinemas is spending $15 million to rebuild its Destiny USA Stadium 19 multiplex from the seats up. Construction started in spring 2025 and is rolling out auditorium by auditorium so the theater can keep selling tickets through the work. The investment is part of a larger Regal commitment across the Pyramid portfolio of theaters and represents one of the most aggressive cinema capital projects in the Northeast since the pandemic.

The Destiny USA theater is the largest Regal in Central New York and houses the region’s only commercial IMAX screen, which measures 72 feet wide by 40 feet tall. The adjacent RPX auditorium runs a 58 foot by 31 foot screen. Both premium houses are being refit with laser projection, and the RPX room is getting Dolby Atmos sound.

Every standard auditorium is receiving full luxury recliners, replacing the traditional stadium seating that has been in place since the 2012 addition. The 4DX format, which used motion seats and environmental effects, is being retired at the location and replaced with ScreenX, a three wall panoramic format that extends the picture onto the side walls. The lobby, corridors, and restrooms are being redesigned, and the concessions counter is expanding to include a full bar serving beer and wine alongside new food offerings. Self service ticket kiosks are being added, and new exterior and interior signage reflects Regal’s 2024 corporate rebrand.

Stephen Congel, chief executive of Pyramid, said in a statement that Regal shares the company’s dedication to innovating to meet changing consumer preferences. Translation: Pyramid wants fewer trips to the mall for errands and more trips for experiences that cannot be ordered online.

A short history of the mall Syracuse built

The site opened on October 15, 1990 as Carousel Center, named for the 1908 Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters number 18 carousel that still turns on the second floor. Pyramid founder Robert J. Congel, who started the company with Michael J. Falcone and Joseph T. Scuderi in 1968, picked a former oil tank farm and scrapyard known as Oil City for the build. The brownfield cleanup added years to the project and drew heavy opposition from rival developers Wilmorite and Eagan Real Estate, both of whom argued the mall would gut downtown Syracuse retail.

The original center opened with Bonwit Teller, Kaufmann’s, Chappell’s, Steinbach, JCPenney, Lechmere, and Hills as anchors. Lord and Taylor was added in 1994. Best Buy moved in during 1998. The biggest change came in August 2012, when Pyramid cut the ribbon on a 1.3 million square foot expansion that lifted the total footprint to 2.4 million square feet and triggered the rename to Destiny USA. The expansion added the third floor Canyon, the current Regal multiplex with IMAX and RPX, Dave and Buster’s, WonderWorks, Revolutions bowling, and a wave of restaurants including Margaritaville.

Pyramid Management Group today owns nine properties, eight of them in New York and one in Massachusetts. It is the largest privately held mall developer in the Northeast, and Destiny USA is the company’s flagship asset. Robert Congel died in 2021. His son Stephen now runs the company.

What is filling the rest of the mall

Margaritaville is not the only departure. Eddie Bauer is closing all of its US stores in 2026, including the Destiny USA shop, and Lord and Taylor vacated its anchor box years ago. On the other side of the ledger, the leasing team has brought a steady run of signings in front of the cameras.

JD Sports opened a 7,000 square foot store in January 2025. Charcoal Grill and Modern Buffet signed for a new restaurant in the Canyon and opened in May 2025. Bounce Party Supplies, Funitvity Arcade, Mystery Bins, Wetzel’s Pretzels, Wendy’s, Y-10 Beauty, US To Future, POPMART Robo Shop, and Twisted Aesthetics have all opened between April 2025 and March 2026. Victoria’s Secret renewed its lease for five years and is in the middle of a store remodel. American Eagle renewed for seven years and has a refresh on deck.

The biggest upcoming announcement is IKEA. Pyramid confirmed in July 2025 that the Swedish retailer chose Destiny USA for its first Upstate New York store. A formal opening date has not been released, but leasing materials list it as a 2026 or 2027 opening. If it lands, it is arguably the most significant single anchor signing since the 2012 expansion.

Two experiential tenants are also under construction. An indoor pickleball club will occupy roughly 40,000 square feet and is scheduled to open in 2026. A 14,000 square foot virtual reality concept is going into an adjacent space. Both fit the Pyramid playbook of replacing floor area once held by soft goods retailers with entertainment uses that drive longer dwell times.

Levels and the experience bet

The third floor, rebranded Levels by Pyramid marketing, is the clearest example of how the mall is shifting. Dave and Buster’s takes up roughly 40,000 square feet with more than 200 arcade games. WonderWorks, the upside down science museum with a 4D motion ride and indoor ropes course, anchors one end of the concourse. Other experience tenants include Billy Beez (a 25,000 square foot indoor play center for kids), 5 Wits (a series of themed escape room adventures), Pole Position Raceway indoor go karts, Apex Entertainment with laser tag and bowling, Canyon Climb Adventure (a four story ropes course), and an escape room operator. TBones Steakhouse left the mall in 2023, and its former space is part of the inventory available to new restaurant concepts.

Dining anchors that remain include The Cheesecake Factory, Texas de Brazil, Tully’s Good Times, PF Chang’s, Melting Pot, and the Johnny Rockets kiosk. The second floor food court still feeds the office and retail workers who fill the mall during weekday shifts. On the retail side, Macy’s and JCPenney remain the department store anchors after Lord and Taylor’s exit. The 2021 occupancy figure reported by the International Council of Shopping Centers placed Destiny USA among the top 20 most visited shopping centers in the United States.

What 2026 means for Syracuse

Destiny USA is the largest private employer in the city of Syracuse outside of the hospital systems and Syracuse University, with retail and entertainment jobs estimated at 4,000 to 5,000 across all tenants at full occupancy. The complex sits on 55 acres along Onondaga Lake and shares its exit ramp with the Central New York Welcome Center, the state run tourism stop that funnels I-81 traffic directly to the mall. Pyramid benefited from a heavy stack of state and city incentives during the 2012 expansion, including a 30 year payment in lieu of taxes agreement with the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency and a 2005 state legislative package that authorized green building tax credits.

The 2026 moves are not a turnaround story. They are a repositioning. Retail headwinds have not spared Destiny USA any more than they have spared American malls generally, and the Eddie Bauer exit is a reminder that national chain decisions continue to flow through Syracuse whether local leasing likes it or not. But the $15 million Regal project, the IKEA announcement, the pickleball and VR investments, and the run of smaller openings add up to something the national mall narrative has mostly missed. Somebody is still betting on physical retail and entertainment in Upstate New York. In 2026, most of that money is being spent at 1 Destiny USA Drive.