What: As David Jones enters voluntary administration, conversions in Melbourne, Gloucester, Rochester and Los Angeles show education, healthcare and research replacing department stores and malls as traffic anchors.

Why it is important: A David Jones retreat would put about 200,000 sqm across 17 Scentre Group centres in play, a scale that tests whether non-retail uses can replace an anchor.

Shopping-centre owners are looking beyond retail to bring people through their doors. CBRE's head of retail research, Kate Bailey, sees recreational and community uses turning regional centres into community hubs that encourage longer visits.

At Westfield Knox in Melbourne, the Myer store closed in 2021 after 44 years, making way for an A$355 million redevelopment. Its A$5.4 million library of about 2,000 sqm opened in March 2024. In Gloucester, the University of Gloucestershire bought the 20,000 sqm former Debenhams in 2021 and turned it into City Campus, with education, psychology and social work courses, an NHS-linked arts, health and wellbeing centre and a public library.

Near Rochester, New York, the University of Rochester's medical centre bought the former Sears at Marketplace Mall, then about 30% vacant. The resulting US$227 million orthopaedic facility opened its surgery centre in February 2023, with eight operating rooms and 144 examination rooms. In Los Angeles, UCLA bought Westside Pavilion in 2024 and expects to open a 700,000 sq ft research park on cancer immunology and quantum computing within two years of its February 2026 update.

Re-leasing such large spaces to retailers may prove difficult, while conversion carries its own costs.

IADS Notes: The prospect of empty David Jones floors follows a review of the retailer's 38-store network and supplier terms, as Vicinity reported department store sales down 6.5% over three months (7NEWS, October 2026). Re-leasing to retail has taken the form of subdivision in Vancouver, where Simons is taking 92,000 sq ft of the former Nordstrom store at Pacific Centre, one of four retailers sharing the premises (Vancouver Sun, April 2026). In the United States, the collapse of the department store anchor model has widened the gap between class A malls and class C/D properties, with weaker centres sold off or redeveloped for residential, entertainment or open-air retail uses (Financial Times, January 2026). Entertainment is one of the substitutes, from Netflix House venues in former mall department stores (Modern Retail, December 2025) to SM Prime's repositioning of its Philippine malls as entertainment and community hubs designed to raise footfall and dwell time (Inside Retail, May 2026).

When department stores close, what takes their place?