Carillion today emerged as the favourite to land the lucrative contract for Wolverhampton’s £300 million Summer Row shopping scheme, the Express & Star can reveal.

The giant developer is believed to be in exclusive negotiations to keep the deal in its home city.

The project is set to transform the streets around Temple Street and Snow Hill into an 85-store shopping paradise anchored by Debenhams and H & M.

Carillion, which is based in Ring Road St Mark’s, but is set to move to the former Staffordshire Building Society headquarters off the ring road, will work with Multi Development Ltd in creating the massive regeneration scheme as long as the deal can be sealed. Work on the centre will start by the end of the year and is set to open in 2010.

Multi Development is believed to have sounded out a number of firms before pushing on with Carillion, which employs more than 800 people in Wolverhampton.

Construction sources say Carillion is “certainly the favourite” to land the much-prized deal to push on and create it, with the whole thing expected to take around 30 months to complete once work starts.

Around 2,000 new jobs will be created.