A NEW partnership is set to see food vendors, music, art and maybe a bar open on the site of an old Sainsburys.

The site of the old Sainsburys in Bitterne is set to be transformed under new plans to open a new “destination space”.

Vintage shop, Robins Nest Emporium Southampton has announced that it has teamed up with the The Phoenix Emporium in Wiltshire to create “The Mercantile Flea”.

The unique collaboration between the two businesses is planned to create a large single floor retail emporium area on the old Sainsburys site.

In addition, the Mercantile Flea will also house several independent street food vendors, host regular live music and arts performances, and, subject to planning, an onsite brewery or bar area.

Alongside this, there will be numerous workshop spaces, event areas and “pop up” shops as well as specialist roof top markets running throughout the year.

The Southampton based emporium said this is done “in a bid to truly make the Mercantile Flea a brand new experience on every visit”.

A spokesperson for the business said the scheme is “an amazing opportunity that we could not miss out on and a great opportunity for us all to help drive our businesses forward.

“Drawing on all our passion and experience to offer an undertaking bigger in scale than our individual businesses, aiming to create a new South Coast destination space.”

The Mercantile Flea will open in addition to all existing Robins Nest Emporiums and the Phoenix Emporium, all of which will continue to run as usual alongside the new joint venture.