By Chris Nicholls
SYDNEY: David Jones has announced it will build a new 14,000 sqm store at Maroochydore’s Sunshine Plaza shopping centre, due to open in 2012.
The store, the first to be announced under David Jones’ FY09-FY12 Strategic Plan, will secure a refurbishment of the centre around the store, with a new adjacent car park and speciality stores “complementary to the David Jones brand,” the company said.
David Jones will share the expanded shopping centre with current tenants Myer, Coles, Target and Kmart, along with 220 speciality stores.
The location was chosen due to the region’s potential for growth, said David Jones chief executive Mark McInnes.
“We have for some time recognised that Queensland (in particular the Sunshine Coast) is a market which represents enormous growth potential for our company and in which department stores are under-represented.
“Following lengthy negotiations with a number of parties, it became clear that Sunshine Plaza was best suited to meet and exceed all of the new store opening criteria (as set out in our FY09-FY12 Strategic Plan),” said McInnes.
The criteria McInnes referred to state any new store should post more than $40 million in sales and a store contribution of $5 million per annum by the second year of opening.
The new Sunshine Plaza store is expected to pull in $50-60 million per annum once established.
Population growth for the catchment area has averaged 21 per cent over the period between 2001 and 2007, with another 100,000 people expected to move in by 2016.
Department store merchandise is expected to grow from $1.3 billion currently to $2.6 billion by 2016, which would provide “enormous potential for a new full line David Jones department store.”
The lease will run for 20 years, with an option to renew it for a further 10 years.
Construction costs will be shared between David Jones, suppliers and the landlords.