Luxury Brands Gravitate to Sydney’s New Look Chatswood Chase
SYDNEY — Luxury is getting some northern exposure in Sydney.
On Thursday Vicinity Centres unveiled phase two of its redevelopment of the 42-year-old Chatswood Chase shopping center at 345 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, a suburb located about eight miles north of the central business district on the city’s North Shore.
The 625 million Australian dollar, or $407 million at current exchange, expanded development, which is due for completion by April 2026, will deliver over 904,000 square feet of trading space over five levels. Over 60 retailers, most of them new to the center and with a focus on luxury, will include 12 LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton brands, including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Dior Beauty, Sephora, Loewe, Rimowa, Celine, Bulgari, Chaumet, Fred and Tiffany & Co. These will be in addition to Hermès, Gucci, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Ralph Lauren and Armani Exchange.
The center is anchored by a revamped two-level, 161,500-square-foot David Jones department store, which opened on Thursday, as did a large group of Australian boutiques for brands that include Zimmermann, Aje, Camilla, Camilla and Marc, Rebecca Vallance, Scanlan Theodore, RM Williams and Mecca.
Australian designer Rebecca Vallance outside her new boutique at the Chatswood Chase redevelopment.
Sydney’s 100 or so north-side suburbs boast a population of almost one million, according to Australian data analytics company Pexa Group’s demographics platform Informed Decisions. While that’s roughly one-fifth of the Greater Sydney population, it’s a highly affluent cohort, with average household incomes 73 percent above the national average. Chatswood specifically also has a significant Chinese population, with 42.4 percent of residents reporting Chinese ancestry in the 2021 Census.
Access to Chatswood has just been made easier by the 60 billion Australian dollar, or $39 billion, Sydney Metro project, with the new Chatswood to Sydenham line opening a year ago, making the trip between Sydney’s CBD and Chatswood now just 11 minutes, shaving almost two thirds off the road trip.
Architect render of the Chatswood Chase redevelopment, which is due to completion in early 2026.
“It [the Metro] is absolutely a game-changer,” said Carla Zampatti chief executive officer Alexander Schuman, who chose the center revamp to unveil a brand new Carla Zampatti store concept from architect Dino Raccanello and Hong Kong-based interior designer Chantelle Kramer. It will subsequently be rolled out to other locations in the company’s network of 24 boutiques in Australia and New Zealand.
Chatswood Chase was one of the brand’s very first mall stores back in the 1980s and Schuman described Sydney’s North Shore as the Australian “heartland” of its customer base for the past 40 years.
“Even now, the biggest postcodes for our online customer receipts are really right around here and westwards towards Macquarie Centre [another Northern Sydney mall],” said Schuman.
Architect render of the rooftop lifestyle and wellness precinct that is due to open in Chatswood Chase.
David Jones has operated within the center since its 1983 opening. The company’s refurbished Chatswood store features eight beauty treatment rooms from brands including Clé de Peau Beauté, La Prairie and Sisley, as well as a refreshed fashion offer and men’s and women’s personal styling suites, which have been booked out for two weeks, according to David Jones chief executive officer Scott Fyfe.
“We’ve taken the best of what we’ve done from flagship experiences across the country and brought them to Chatswood. There’s 50 new brands in the store across fashion and beauty,” said Fyfe.
“It [Chatswood and the North Shore] is hugely important for us, it’s got the best demographic of David Jones customers in the country,” he added. “This is absolutely a target market for David Jones and we wanted to make sure we had the right experiences and brand experience for our customers.”
