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A derelict beach café will be flattened to make way for a five-storey development boasting a cliff-top restaurant and new flats.
The plans for Western Undercliff in Ramsgate also include a café with an outdoor seating area and public toilets.
The seafront site is currently occupied by a run-down building which was a café until 2014 when a burst water pipe fractured the structure, forcing the owners to close.
Previously, up until the 1980s, the beach front had huts, chalets and other facilities, but these were demolished in 1995 to make way for an access road to the harbour.
Now, plans by Western Undercliff Ltd to transform the site have been approved by Thanet District Council planners, with developers saying it will create a destination restaurant and "bolster tourism".
Hume Planning, agent for the developer, says it would be a "truly distinctive landmark building".
It will have eight flats over the first, second and third floor, and the fourth will be a restaurant and bar.
The ground floor will have a café with outdoor seating and there will stairs and lifts to serve the restaurant and flats.
In planning documents, Hume said: "The design of the building is innovative and contemporary but respectful of its sensitive coastal location.
"Each floor of the building is set back from the west elevation to create a tiered effect and will take the appearance of the bow of a ship.
"A critical driver of this submission has been the optimisation and regeneration of this sustainable located brownfield site to provide a landmark building and ‘destination’ restaurant, to not only support the function of the beach, but re-provide a valued community use and high quality housing.
"The scheme will provide an economic benefit through the re-instatement of the café use and new restaurant, which will bolster local tourism.
"The provision of new housing also plays an important role in supporting wider economic growth, together with short-term construction employment and that of associated industries.
"The development would make a positive contribution towards the supply of small housing within an area experiencing an acute shortage, with the site also benefitting from a sustainable location from where local services and facilities are accessible."
