Garden City Westfield David Jones closes as 11 new tenants revealed

In a shock move, a David Jones department store at a major Brisbane shopping centre will close, the space to be gutted and replaced with 11 smaller retailers. Here is its last day of trading and what’s planned. VOTE IN OUR POLL

The David Jones department store at Westfield Mt Gravatt (formerly Garden City) will close forever in January and then be gutted and turned into seven “mini major’’ retail spaces.

The names of the seven tenants, as well as four small specialist stores, is not known.

David Jones announced a major restructure several years ago as it battled competition from online shopping and Covid, including the closure of its store at Toowong in 2021 after 36 years.

Sinclair Planning said in a development application (DA) lodged earlier this month that both levels presently occupied by DJs would be demolished and refitted to accommodate seven “mini major’’ and other specialty tenants.

The department store’s travelators between levels 1 and 2 would be removed and the void enclosed.

David Jones at Mount Gravatt Shopping Centre.

The facade of an adjoining mall entry would also be “refreshed’’ and the outside facade on level 2 pulled back internally to create a terraced area, allowing natural light into the space.

Some changes would be made to parking next to level 1, removing two parents-with-prams spaces, while the overall floor area would be reduced by 450 sqm.

There would be three mini-major tenancies created on level 1 and two specialty stores, with the other four mini-majors and two more specialty stores on level 2.

DJs has suffered a number of setbacks in recent years, including the closure of a new smaller-format store in Fortitude Valley in 2020.

A DJs spokesman confirmed the store would close for the final time in January next year.

“David Jones is focused on delivering an enhanced omni-channel experience for our customers.

“Key to delivering this experience is the optimisation of our retail network, through investment in flagship stores, right-sizing and where necessary, consolidation of our footprint,’’ he said.

Parisa Arean outside David Jones in 2009 when the centre was known as Garden City. It has been a favourite with shoppers for decades. Picture: Jono Searle

“We look forward to welcoming our Garden City customers online and to our other store locations.’’

But only last week, DJs and its stablemate fashion chains at the Country Road Group announced that they continued to ring up strong sales growth.

“In line with this, we can confirm the closure of our store at Garden City (QLD) will take place in January 2023.

“Our strategy has been shared widely with our team members and customers and we remain focused on prioritising transitional support to all team members and offering redeployment opportunities wherever possible.

A spokeswoman for Westfield Mt Gravatt said the DJs at Carindale remained open and had received a major refurbishment three years ago.

“We’re working alongside David Jones to optimise their physical store network across our Westfield Living Centre portfolio,’’ she said.

“As a result, David Jones at Westfield Mt Gravatt will close.

“We can confirm we’ve lodged a development application to repurpose the site to introduce new and exciting retail experiences to the centre.

“Customer and retail partner updates will be shared with our community via our website at the appropriate time.”

South Africa’s Woolworths Holdings owned both companies. It has previously announced it was planning to sell them.

Woolworths Holdings, which bought David Jones in 2014 for about $2 billion, said its fashion and apparel businesses in Australia continued to deliver sales above pre-Covid levels.

In late 2019, DJs reopened its Carindale store with an Australian-first concept featuring concierges, a cafe and even refreshments served in the fitting rooms.

More information and to lodge a submission, visit Council’s online DA portal developmenti and search for application A006144550

Originally published as Garden City Westfield David Jones closes as 11 new tenants revealed