David Jones to Close Seven NSW Stores as Westfield and GPT Weigh Replacement Tenants

David Jones store closures NSW, Digi Mart USA News (New South Wales, Australia): David Jones told staff and suppliers on Wednesday that it will close half of its stores, including seven in New South Wales, leaving thousands of workers without jobs after the peak Christmas trading period. The collapsed department store has not yet confirmed what will take over the spaces.

The NSW stores set to close are Macquarie Centre, Macarthur Square, Parramatta, Hornsby, Warringah Mall, Green Hills in East Maitland and Wollongong Central. The decision came a week after David Jones entered administration when last-ditch negotiations with its landlord, Westfield operator Scentre Group, broke down.

Business Western Sydney executive director David Borger said the Parramatta store had once been a destination shoppers would dress up to visit, and he struggled to imagine a single tenant taking over the space in Westfield Parramatta. He said that in earlier decades large department stores were the main drawcard for shopping centres, with smaller shops benefiting from their traffic, but that this pattern now appears to be reversing.

Castle Towers in Castle Hill offers an earlier example. David Jones closed its store there in January after 34 years, and QIC, which manages the centre, said the departure completed a planned transition.

The space is being reconfigured into a lifestyle and sporting precinct with multiple retailers, including JD Sports, Lululemon, LSKD, Nike, Universal Store and Kookai, in place of a single anchor tenant. QIC described this as responding to changing retail dynamics in a LinkedIn post.

Scentre Group did not confirm whether the former David Jones spaces at Parramatta, Hornsby and Warringah Mall would be leased to one or several tenants. Chief executive Elliott Rusanow said there was strong demand for space at the centres, adding that the group has a unique opportunity at 17 Westfield destinations to introduce and grow local and international brands.

GPT, which manages Macquarie Centre and Macarthur Square, is assessing options for the spaces David Jones will vacate. A GPT spokesperson said the company has for several years been reinvesting in and evolving space across its centres, including repositioning large-format space to meet changing customer needs.