Businesses have snapped up nearly half of the available places at Coventry’s new £5million ‘creative village’.

The long-awaited FarGo Village – the last stage in the city’s multi-million pound Far Gosford Street development – will be home to a number of artists, crafts experts and businesses once it opens next summer.

The run-down industrial estate will be transformed into a thriving creative centre and home to a multi-purpose venue, bars and cafes.

Ian Harrabin, managing director of Complex Development Projects/Mazing Ltd, the developers of Fargo Village, said everything was going to plan and exciting times were ahead.

He said: “We are really pleased and excited at the level of interest and Coventry has a great creative community that is currently hidden away.

“The idea of FarGo is to get as many of them as possible in one place and 43 per cent of the space we have is already signed up.

"We are also speaking to another 19 people and hope to get them signed up as well.

“We are hoping to open in the summer next year and around this time next year will be a really exciting time.”

Among those to have aired their interest in joining the FarGo revolution is Michael McEntee, from the The Big Comfy Bookshop, who admits he nearly missed out on the opportunity all together.

He said: “I was approached by Jo from FarGo at the Earlsdon festival – I tucked the leaflet into my bag and subsequently forgot all about it.

“Only a month later while reorganising things did I come across the leaflet and investigate further. I was struck immediately by how similar both Fargo’s and my ideas were.

“I am extremely excited by this new venture.

"As well as books I’ll be selling cakes made by Clairey’s Cakes and Ali Smart, and selling locally made crafts, such as the talented Emily’s at Cotton Cat UK.”