A vacant Island venue could be given a new lease of life as a nightclub and restaurant.

Work was being carried out inside the former Bar One pub in Sheerness High Street this week.

We can now reveal that it was purchased by Essex-based company Spic and Span which has plans to convert it into a new nightspot.

The firm is owned by entrepreneur Jason Djemal, of Waltham Abbey, who says he is ready to go ahead with his plans to bring the site back into use after he bought it for £255,000.

He is aiming to have the new business up and running as early as the end of the year although he said there is a huge task ahead as everything inside needs to be stripped out and refurbished.

A restaurant on the second floor will be called Turkelicious, serving grilled Turkish cuisine, while the nightclub downstairs would keep the name Bar One with flats on the third floor.

Mr Djemal said: “I’m excited about it. Hopefully it goes well and it picks up because there’s nothing really like that in that area.

“If it works out it works but if it doesn’t, it’s quite a cheap project for me.”

The prominent town centre building’s previous owner Ozer Osturk paid £230,000 for the premises at an auction in 2011.

He was granted planning permission by Swale council to turn it into seven one-bedroom flats and the ground floor into a restaurant.

The businessman was hoping to persuade chains such as Nando’s and KFC to move in.

But his efforts to attract any big names to the site proved unsuccessful and put it up for auction the following year.

Bar One was run by owners Keith and Sharon Willett for four years before it closed in April 2009. The couple reopened it for a few months the following year before the doors shut for good in August 2010.