A “LARGE format fashion retailer” is on its way to Wollongong, with GPT lodging plans to overhaul the former David Jones tenancy facing Crown Street Mall.
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The company’s development manager Steven Turner confirmed rumours the company was in talks with a popular international fashion retailer, and said it would be a store “in line with what our customers have been asking for”.
However, he could not reveal the brand GPT was targeting for the large vacant space, due to “commercial confidence” and a number of hurdles which still stood in the way of the deal.
“It’s subject to a [development application]… and both parties need to approve the deal in commercial negotiations,” Mr Turner said.
“But we certainly are targeting a large format fashion retailer.”
According to plans lodged with Wollongong City Council, GPT hopes to close off the eastern mall entrance along Crown Street to make way for the new store.
“We think this large tenant will be extremely popular down that end of the mall, and to get the space required we need to expand the existing tenancy,” Mr Turner said.
“Basically this tenant would become the new entry to the mall.”
The works would create two new entry points into the fashion store and shift a number of smaller tenancies inside the mall, he said.
The smaller shops would continue to face onto Crown Street but will be given internal access to the Wollongong Central under the plans, which the development documents said “will result in improved overall activation of, and interaction with, the mall”.
David Jones moved out of its Wollongong Central site, consolidating the homewares department into its Crown Street building on the opposite side of the mall, in September after its lease with GPT expired.
Mr Turner said the move had presented a good opportunity for both David Jones and GPT, as it allowed the company “to build on the mix” of Wollongong mall.
“It was a great opportunity for us to add to our offer, and the types of tenants we’re targeting are the ones our customers have been asking for,” he said.
He said work on the new store would begin, subject to approval, early next year but that the new store would not open until about September 2016.
During the works, an “activated wall” will be installed to allow “images, Christmas lighting and the like to provide an attractive frontage”, the development application documents said.
The plans are on exhibition through the council’s website until November 11.
