MAJOR high street retailers have already snapped up most of the space in Maidstone's Fremlin Walk retail development which is due to open in time for Christmas 2004.

About 60 per cent of units in the 350,000 square foot shopping centre - sited between Week Street, Earl Street, Fairmeadow and St Faith's Street - have already gone. House of Fraser, Boots, Gap and Dixons will be among the stores lining a series of landscaped streets and squares.

The developer spearheading the new centre, Centros Miller, predicts it will push Maidstone into the top 50 retail centres in the country and help the County Town compete more effectively with the Bluewater Shopping Centre at Greenhithe, near Dartford.

The Fremlin Walk development has been welcomed by Richard Searle of Insignia Richard Ellis, the asset manager for Maidstone's Chequers Shopping Centre, who sees the new complex as vital to the town's development and remains confident that the existing centre will hold its own.