Merry Hill Shopping Centre had agreed to become tenants of a new department store in the final phase of the shopping complex. It opened on 23 October 1990, replacing the recently closed stores in nearby towns West Bromwich and Dudley; the retailer had hoped that its Merry Hill store could co-exist with the West Bromwich and Dudley stores, but the onset of the recession and a general downturn in trade in these towns led to the closure of both stores on 25 August 1990. On 24 December 1990, the shopping centre was sold to Mountleigh. Development of the steelworks site did not commence until
Westfield Parramatta expanded the Parramatta town centre south of the railway line. That original Grace Bros. store was later incorporated into the first stage development of the new Westfield Parramatta, opening in 1975 as the largest shopping centre in Australia at the time. Later stage redevelopments of the sites now occupied by the current Westfield Parramatta involved archaeological digs which uncovered artifacts dating back to the earliest days of Colonial settlement, reflecting Parramatta's history as the second oldest settlement in Australia. The first redevelopment of Westfield Parramatta took place between 1988 and 1989. This was followed by a large scale expansion of