In addition to solar power, the completed Destiny development is committed to embracing recycling and wind power and to avoiding fossil fuels. Because the Syracuse construction site sits on land that was once home to oil tanks, the project is considered an example of environmental rehabilitation.
Clinton backers say that she made use of this and many other earmarks as a way of speeding help to municipalities in upstate New York, an area that has lost residents and has become economically stagnant.
Syracuse has seen its population drop to 147,000 in 2000, from 221,000 in 1950, and it has lost thousands of high-paying jobs. It is also in a relatively isolated region, a four-hour drive from New York City's metropolitan area.
Because of its isolation and its loss of industrial jobs, critics question whether the giant shopping and entertainment project makes financial sense and merits public subsidies.
Syracuse City Councilwoman Stephanie A. Miner is a leading skeptic. She had extensive conversations with Clinton detailing her doubts but she says she was unable to convince the senator that government support for Destiny is a bad idea. Miner, who is backing Clinton's presidential bid, calls the project loaded with "incredibly fanciful ideas."
And she calls the government backing "corporate welfare."
Destiny's chief executive, Michael J. Lorenz, says the project is already offering high-wage employment opportunities and has paid $100 million in fees to local governments. He said he believed that the environmentally friendly retail and entertainment center would attract visitors from long distances.
"We think there is an opportunity to bring more of those to upstate New York. . . . With a little bit of vision you can see how this area can be transformed," Lorenz said.
He predicted the complex would become the nation's leading "consumer destination," drawing shoppers from all over the eastern United States. It will "attract more people, more profitably than anything ever built," reads the promotional literature.
Lorenz's boss, Destiny owner Robert J. Congel, is a Republican who raised more than $200,000 for President Bush's reelection in 2004. He and his family have given $8,000 to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney this year. Congel has given occasionally to Democrats, often to those in a position to help his business ventures.
