This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
DAVID Jones is going after Melbourne's well heeled residents, by opening a new village format department store at Malvern Central shopping centre in Melbourne's inner south-east, taking Target's space.
David Jones has entered into an agreement with AMP Capital, which manages the centre on behalf of the owner UniSuper, to lease 7,522 sqm at Malvern Central approximately 8km south-east of the Melbourne CBD.
David Jones CEO Paul Zahra said the new village format store is another step forward in implementing the company’s Future Strategic Direction Plan.
“The new Malvern village format department store is based on the company’s successful Claremont Quarter (Western Australia) store which was relaunched in February 2011 and the Toowong Village (Queensland) store which is currently under refurbishment,”
Zahra said Malvern Central has a strong income demographic and a high percentage of residents in the catchment area are in Australia’s top income bracket, with a total Department Store Type Merchandise market valued at $1.3 billion.
The centre’s catchment area includes Toorak and South Yarra.
“We are delighted to be making progress in the implementation of our new village format stores as outlined in our Future Strategic Direction Plan.
“Our village format stores are a natural extension of our core business and enable us to leverage our existing merchandise, operating and service capabilities as well as the David Jones brand in attractive demographics which do not have major shopping centres located within the area,” he continued.
The village format store is substantially smaller than a traditional David Jones department store, which is normally 14,000 sqm and upwards.
David Jones will take over the space currently utilised by discount department store Target on the lower level of the centre.
As part of the agreement, AMP will undertake an extensive redevelopment of the centre in early 2013, which will also introduce new specialty fashion stores to the centre.
Last week DJs reported total sales for the fourth quarter of the 2012 of $455.8 million, down 1.3% from last year. Total Sales for the year were $1.868 billion, which represents a decline of 4.6% on the prior year.
Victoria was the best performing state for DJs, delivering positive growth.
Earlier this year, David Jones signed a 20-year lease to open a store at Highpoint shopping centre in Melbourne’s west.
The Besen Family, GPT Wholesale Shopping Centre Fund and GPT Group will invest approximately $300 million in the redevelopment to accommodate the new DJs store.
Property Review
