THE site of a former York nightclub is set to be turned into an outdoor equipment and clothing store.

Developers have applied to City of York Council to tweak a scheme allowing an as-yet-unnamed firm to move into the building which once housed Ikon and Diva at Clifton Moor.

The club closed in 2005 and the site has been empty ever since, but its owners, Henry Boot Projects Ltd, secured planning permission in 2008 to turn it into 18,000sq ft of retail space with the aim of attracting a big-name store.

And although the economic climate led to delays, the company says an occupant for the Stirling Road building has now been found and they will move in subject to the request for the alterations to the original planning permission being granted.

The scheme includes a new glass-fronted entrance and an 80-space car park, with Henry Boot’s new application also designed to secure approval for the range of goods provided by the firm taking on the building’s lease to be sold there.

Atisreal, the co-agents for the development, said full details of the company intending to move to the site will be revealed once a decision on the proposed alterations is made by the council, which is expected to happen at the start of September.

Henry Boot has been in charge of developing the Clifton Moor retail park since the late-1980s and the rejuvenation of the vacant nightclub site is seen as the final piece in the area’s retail jigsaw.

A design statement submitted by the scheme’s architects, Jefferson Sheard, said the new application covered “minor alterations to the existing building.”