Kentish Express Ashford & District
ON THE MOVE
HomePlus to open in abandoned Argos store as former site faces demolition
A furniture chain is moving into Ashford’s former Argos store which has sat abandoned for two years, the Kentish Express can reveal.
HomePlus had been trading from a huge site in Beaver Road but is now preparing to open in New Rents next week.
Signs were put up at the town centre spot on Friday and owner Martin Rose says his shop will open on Monday.
He was forced to leave his Beaver Road site in March as the former B&Q store is going to be demolished to make way for the ‘Ashford Shard’ 16-storey tower block plan.
Mr Rose says the ex-Argos unit will be half the size of his previous shop, but will continue to offer same-day delivery.
“It will be a showcase store similar to what I have at the Dockside Outlet in Chatham,” he said.
“I have been trading in Ashford for almost 30 years and I definitely don’t want to move outofthetown-IamanAshford man.
“Everyone who works for me is local - they all live in the town or the villages and it has always been that way.”
Argos left the town centre in June 2018 to set up a smaller store inside Bybrook Sainsbury’s on the Warren Retail Park.
Since then, the site has been advertised by Stafford Perkins but has sat empty for 24 months.
The prime New Rents spot previously housed decorating specialist Fads and a Superdrug store but was knocked into one when Argos arrived in Ashford in 1996.
Mr Rose says his HomePlus shop will be “Covid-compliant” when it opens on Monday.
He added: “It enables us to continue to trade in Ashford, supporting our customers and maintaining our business - it is as simple as that.
“It is smaller than what we have been used to, but customers who have bought from us before can continue to do so.
“We are the last independent furniture store in the town.
“Now Ashbury Furniture has gone and the Hythe Road
Furniture Store store has shut, there’s nowhere else other than us.”
HomePlus will be open from 10am to 4pm seven days a week.
At its former spot in Beaver Road, Ashford Borough Council’s property company - A Better Choice for Property Ltd - is behind the plans to redevelop the site.
Although ABC projects including the 500-space multi-storey car park in Station Road have been paused due to the coronavirus crisis, bosses say they are still continuing to work on A Better Choice for Property Ltd schemes.
This week, permission was obtained to knock down the ex-HomePlus site and former car wash next door, which is now surrounded by temporary fencing.
Bosses are yet to gain planning permission for the ‘Ashford Shard’ scheme, but say they want to demolish the shop so the site “can be safely cleared and made ready for redevelopment ahead of a decision being taken”.
Signs have been put up around the spot warning people not to enter as ‘demolition work is in progress’.
Plans for the ‘Ashford Shard’ were submitted in November, featuring more than 200 flats in the 16-storey block, 12 town houses, a hidden car park and retail space.
A restaurant and bar is also planned to sit at the top of the tower block on the 15th and 16th floors, offering views across Ashford.
At a public consultation held last year, Keith Hollidge, commercial development manager at A Better Choice for Property, said bosses are aiming to construct a “landmark development” for Ashford.
If built, it will form part of ‘Victoria Point’, with Chapel Down’s brewery having opened last year and a Hampton by Hilton hotel set to go next to the BP petrol station on the other side of Beaver Road.
Mr Hollidge said: “We think it [the HomePlus site] is an important one in the context of what is around it.
“We need something striking to do it justice.”
What do you think? Email your views for our letters pages at kentishexpress@ thekmgroup.co.uk