The site of the old Army and Navy store in Maidstone is to be cleared next year to make way for shops, a cafe and housing.

Property company Kilmerlin Danesmount has submitted a planning application to Maidstone council for the site in Week Street.

The existing 32,000 sq ft store, which has stood empty for three years, will be demolished and replaced with five storeys, in similar materials to those at Fremlin Walk.

There will be shops on the ground and first floors with the possibility of a restaurant on the first floor. Ten one-bedroom flats and 15 two-bedroom flats will be set over the top three floors.

All the flats will be affordable housing, with some rented, others managed by housing associations and some offered for sale on a part-buy, part-rent basis.

But no parking is included in the £9 million scheme.

Martyn Guess, chief executive of Kilmerlin Danesmount, said government planning guidelines state, if a development is in a town centre, near public transport and classed as “sustainable”, it does not need parking.

Kilmerlin Danesmount is in talks with retailers.

If planning consent is given in the summer, businesses and tenants could be moving in by Christmas 2009.

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