Onondaga County takes full control of former ShoppingTown Mall site

What changes now that Onondaga County finally owns every last piece of the former ShoppingTown Mall? For the first time, county officials can shape the DeWitt property as a single redevelopment site, after paying Benderson Development $2.5 million for the final Macy’s parcel and ending the ownership split that had stalled action for years.

The county announced the purchase April 16, completing its control of a site that opened in March 1954 as the first major suburban shopping center in the Syracuse area and later became an enclosed mall. ShoppingTown closed in 2020 after years of high vacancies, and much of the property had already been bought from Moonbeam Capital that same year for $3.5 million. The last two holdouts were the former Macy’s parcel and the old Sears parcel. TransformCo had already given up the Sears property for $4 million, leaving the Benderson-owned Macy’s site as the final barrier.

That barrier had been legal as much as financial. The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency filed to take the Macy’s parcel by eminent domain on Sept. 22, 2025, and State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Lamendola ruled March 31 that the county IDA could proceed with redevelopment of the entire property. The county’s payment settled the sale at the judge-determined value, though Benderson still has the right to contest the amount and seek a higher price.

County Executive Ryan McMahon said the county now wants a mixed-use project with housing, retail and space for employers, not another single-purpose retail plan. County officials also have said they are open to apartments, retail amenities and high-tech research and development, a sign they want the site to do more than replace one dead mall with another. McMahon also said senior housing is needed, but that the project still needs an anchor tenant to work.

The next visible step is not demolition but selection. The county is accepting redevelopment proposals through 3 p.m. May 14, and it is asking $25 million for the mall site. That means the county is now looking for a developer with enough capital and a broad enough vision to make the property work as a town-center style destination instead of a stranded commercial shell.

At an April 7 public meeting, DeWitt residents pushed county officials to prioritize senior housing and green space, while also complaining about boarded-up entrances, overgrown weeds and maintenance problems around the vacant mall. Those concerns show the political pressure on Onondaga County to move quickly after years of delay, but the timeline for a new project will still run through proposal review, negotiations and approvals before any major construction reaches the site.