Via Port Rotterdam is still listed as a shopping mall, but that label fits worse each year. The building contains a state government call center, a bingo hall, an aquarium, and indoor batting cages. Whatever it is, the name for it hasn't caught up.
It opened in 1988 as Rotterdam Square, a conventional department-store-anchored regional center on West Campbell Road in Schenectady County.
The former Macy's anchor now holds hundreds of state workers on weekdays. Part of the former Kmart is filled with bingo players in the evenings. Neither use appeared in the original leasing plan.
The story of how a building moved from one category to another, without quite arriving at the new one, is stranger than most decline stories, and more instructive about how regional malls survive their anchors.
Rotterdam Square's Opening: Carousel, Cemetery, and Three Anchors
The full-size Italian carousel stood in the food court for nearly two decades.
Shoppers at Rotterdam Square passed it on their way to Hess's, to Sears, or to the cinema that opened alongside the mall on September 1, 1988.
The food court sat near the preserved Vedder family cemetery, a burial ground dating to the early 1700s that was enclosed within the mall property during construction rather than cleared.
A regional shopping center and 18th-century headstones occupied the same plot of Schenectady County ground. At its early high point, the mall held 95 stores.
The carousel was sold and removed in January 2007. The building around it would fall into visible decline in the following years, with rising vacancies and reduced foot traffic by the mid-2010s.
The Site's Older History: Vedder Land to Campbell Road
Harmen Albertse Vedder acquired land in the Rotterdam area in 1672 and built a home there. The family cemetery took shape on the property over the following decades.
In 1832, Johannes Vedder sold the land to Colonel Daniel David Schermerhorn Campbell, who built a large mansion on the grounds.
The Campbell name outlasted the mansion. West Campbell Road, the commercial corridor that became the mall's address and primary access route, carried the name forward.
When Wilmorite Properties advanced its mall project in the 1980s, the Vedder Cemetery was preserved rather than cleared.
The burial ground sat near the food court and the front entrance side of the completed building.
The mall's original name, Rotterdam Square, connected the property to the town rather than to any individual developer. The cemetery remained regardless of what the building was called.
How Wilmorite Built Rotterdam Square
On September 22, 1986, Rotterdam Square L.P. signed a lease with Sears for a department store at the planned mall, establishing one of the three anchor relationships two years before the building opened.
The mall launched on September 1, 1988, with Hess's, Kmart, and Sears in their anchor spaces and a cinema operating from day one.
The project placed 557,000 square feet of enclosed retail on a suburban site accessible from Interstate 890 via West Campbell Road.
Downtown Schenectady retail faced a new competitor offering climate-controlled space, three department stores, national chains, a food court, a cinema, and surface parking on a scale the city's older commercial core could not match.
The project drew environmental objections during development because the site sat near wetlands and preserve land, including the area now associated with the Great Flats Nature Trail and Preserve.
Construction went forward. Wilmorite also served as construction manager for portions of the project and directed site improvements, including sidewalks and ramps.
Rotterdam Square opened and held its position as the primary enclosed retail destination in Schenectady County through the 1990s.
The Department Store Era: Late-2004 Occupancy and Shifting Anchor Names
May Department Stores acquired Hess's on June 5, 1995, and the Rotterdam Square location became Filene's.
Names changed, but the structure held. Sears expanded its original 83,500-square-foot footprint to 103,300 square feet.
The food court carousel remained one of the interior's recognizable features for anyone visiting regularly.
By late 2004, as Wilmorite's portfolio was being transferred to Macerich, Rotterdam Square carried an 88 percent occupancy rate, three active anchors, and 268,600 square feet of non-anchor leasable space.
On December 23, 2004, Macerich announced a $2.33 billion agreement to acquire Wilmorite Properties, including assumed debt.
The transaction closed in early 2005, moving Rotterdam Square from a regional developer to a national real estate investment trust.
Filene's became Macy's the following year after Federated Department Stores acquired May. The anchor box had now moved through three department store names since 1988: Hess's, Filene's, and Macy's.
Each change reflected a round of consolidation across an industry that was left with fewer and fewer competing chains, while online retail and changing shopping habits were beginning to erode the foot traffic that kept enclosed malls viable.
The Slide: Vacancies, Kohan, and a Power Shutoff
On January 15, 2014, Kohan Retail Investment Group bought Rotterdam Square from Macerich for $8.5 million.
The group pursued new tenants but brought operational problems associated with other properties in its portfolio. In November 2014, the mall nearly had its power cut off over an unpaid electric bill.
On February 12, 2015, National Grid shut off electricity to the mall's common areas.
Macy's, Sears, and Kmart each ran separate power arrangements and stayed open, but the shutoff confirmed publicly what the growing vacancy count had been showing.
In January 2015, Macy's announced it would close its Rotterdam Square location.
The mall had at least 16 empty storefronts at that point; Aeropostale, Deb, and Olympia Sports were also closing. Macy's shut down in March 2015.
Via Properties bought the mall through Viaport New York LLC for $9.3 million later in 2015. The Kohan ownership had lasted 17 months.
Via Properties, the Rebrand, and the Entertainment Turn
Via Properties had used the Via Port name at a mall in Leesburg, Florida, and was connected with Turkish retail and entertainment development interests.
The new owner planned $10 million in investment and repositioned the property around entertainment, dining, services, and local tenants rather than the departing national chain model.
Work started in August 2015 on an aquarium and a family entertainment zone inside former retail spaces. The aquarium was built in what had been the T.J. Maxx location, at 24,000 to 25,000 square feet.
The family entertainment zone covered 28,000 to 30,000 square feet and included bowling, arcade games, a sports bar, and restaurant space.
In January 2016, the property was rebranded from Rotterdam Square Mall to Via Port Rotterdam. VIA Aquarium opened on November 12, 2016, with freshwater and saltwater exhibits, tunnel tanks, and 37 exhibit areas.
The Local, the family entertainment zone, offered more than 50 arcade games, axe-throwing, food, and drinks.
VIA Discovery, a themed attraction built around dinosaurs and other exhibits, followed. The redevelopment aimed to push occupancy from the 65-70 percent range toward 90 percent.
Sears and Kmart: The Last Two Original Anchors Close
Sears had been part of the mall since the 1986 lease.
On September 11, 2012, Sears and the mall signed a third lease amendment extending the term through August 31, 2018, with options for four additional five-year periods.
That extension did not hold. Sears announced the closure of its Via Port Rotterdam store and auto center and began liquidating in May 2016. The store closed in August 2016.
Via Port New York LLC sued Sears in 2017 for $500,500 in claimed unpaid rent. Sears had stopped paying after closing and had sent a June 2017 termination letter. The case was dismissed in 2018.
Kmart was the last of the original three. Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2018 and identified the Rotterdam location among 142 stores to close.
63 workers were affected. January 31, 2019, was the final business date. The original three-anchor lineup that opened Rotterdam Square in 1988 was gone.
Reusing the Anchor Boxes: Office Space, Bingo, and Town Plans
In 2017, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance opened a call center in the former Macy's space after an $8 million buildout.
The space was large enough for as many as 700 employees, and more than 500 positions were relocated to the mall.
A former department store box became a weekday workplace, changing the daily rhythm of a building designed around weekend shoppers.
Rotterdam town leaders studied the former Kmart space in 2021, when a proposal to consolidate Town Hall, the police department, and the municipal court there advanced to an environmental assessment.
The concept involved 86,500 square feet and 100 employees. The town hired Barton & Loguidice at a cost of $32,000 for the study. The proposal was examined but not completed.
Part of the old Kmart area later became 518 Bingo, occupying 20,000 square feet near the 99 Restaurant entrance and holding 200 players per game.
Its opening followed the closure of the Schenectady Bingo Palace and turned another vacant corner of the former anchor footprint into a regular evening destination.
Via Port Rotterdam in 2026: Aquarium, Cinema, and a Changed Mall
In January 2026, an electrical fire in a box behind the Cape Cod and California exhibits forced a temporary closure of VIA Aquarium.
Fire suppression contained it. Contractors restored climate systems supporting temperature-sensitive animals, including Japanese spider crabs and warmer-water exhibits housing Discus and corals.
The aquarium reopened on January 28, 2026.
CDTA service to the property has changed from older express-route listings: former Route 530 no longer appears as a current VIA Port express to Albany, while current materials identify Route 354 as the connection to Nott Street in Schenectady.
Planning approvals from 2025 into early 2026 show what the building now holds: pallet goods in 2,700 square feet, antiques in the old Deb Shops space, a hot-dog stand in the former Fresco Wrap location, and a learning center.
They also show indoor batting cages for baseball and softball in 6,500 square feet, a digital media business in 3,000 square feet, seasonal tax preparation, phone repair, and a daycare center that expanded into 7,300 square feet.
Fonda Speedway held a car show through the mall for four days in March 2026.
The Vedder cemetery is still on the grounds. Zurich Cinemas still runs films. The former T.J. Maxx holds an aquarium.
The former Macy's holds state workers on weekdays. Part of the former Kmart holds a bingo hall in the evenings.
None of this matches what Rotterdam Square L.P. planned when it signed its first lease with Sears in September 1986.
None of it is an empty building on West Campbell Road, either.
