The property giants that operate some of Sydney’s biggest shopping centres are scrambling to decide how they will fill the sprawling spaces vacated by collapsed department store David Jones.
David Jones told staff and suppliers on Wednesday it would axe half its stores , including seven in NSW, leaving thousands of workers without a job after the peak Christmas trading period and casting doubt over what would replace them.
The NSW stores that will shut include Macquarie Centre, Macarthur Square, Parramatta, Hornsby, Warringah Mall, Green Hills in East Maitland and Wollongong Central.
Business Western Sydney executive director David Borger said the Parramatta store was once a destination that shoppers would dress up to visit and the “only place you could buy Yorkshire tea in western Sydney”.
Now, he struggles to imagine a single tenant who could take over the space in Westfield Parramatta.
“I think in the old days when I was growing up, places like David Jones were actually the drawcard, and all of the smaller shops fed off the really big shops, but now I think it’s almost reversing.”
That reversal has already been seen at the Castle Towers shopping centre in Castle Hill, where David Jones closed its store in January, after 34 years.
At the time, QIC, which manages Castle Towers, said the departure of David Jones marked the completion of a planned transition and would allow the space to be reconfigured into a lifestyle and sporting precinct “better aligned to customer needs”. Instead of being anchored by one tenant, the space would feature multiple retailers, including JD Sports, Lululemon, LSKD, Nike, Universal Store and Kookai.
“By responding to changing retail dynamics and the consolidation of department store footprints, we’re creating a precinct that consumers want to visit,” QIC said in a LinkedIn post.
The decision to close dozens of stores came a week after David Jones collapsed into administration when last-ditch negotiations with its landlord, Westfield operator Scentre Group, broke down.
Scentre Group did not confirm whether the former David Jones retail spaces at Parramatta, Hornsby and Warringah Mall would be leased out to one or multiple tenants, but chief executive Elliott Rusanow said there was strong demand for space at the centres.
“We have a unique opportunity at 17 Westfield destinations to introduce and grow local and international brands and experiences that our customers want,” he said.
GPT, which manages the Macquarie Centre and Macarthur Square shopping centres, is assessing opportunities for the spaces David Jones will vacate.
“GPT has for a number of years been proactively reinvesting in and evolving space across its centres as part of a broader retail strategy, including repositioning large-format space to meet changing customer needs,” a GPT spokesperson said.
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