The £300 million Summer Row shopping dream in Wolverhampton was today back on track.

Final negotiations are being held with investors to make the city centre shopping complex a reality.

The showpiece development, to be anchored by Debenhams and Marks & Spencer, would also feature restaurants, cafes and 140 apartments.

But it  has been on hold due to lack of cash since a funding deal with three Irish backers collapsed in December 2008. Developer Multi has spent months trying to secure half of the cash, around £150 million, to allow it to go ahead.

And today they revealed that they were in the final stages of talks with “a couple” of un-named investors who could save the project.

Multi managing director Paul Sargent said: “We’re in the last phase of discussions.

“We don’t want to raise hopes too much as even if we do get the money, the next step moving forward would be to identify a timeline and there would be conditions that would need to be fulfilled. People are cautious with the market the way it is, but we are in dialogue with potential investors.”

In December last year, consultants from Ernst & Young were appointed to get the project, in Snow Hill, back on track.  And Wolverhampton Council bosses revealed in February that they were considering taking a bank loan of up to £20m to help lure investors.

The developer wants to get the scheme stated before the turn of the year.

Compulsory purchase orders on around 200 businesses that will have to be knocked down to make way for the 600,000 sq ft development run out in February next year. Once the orders expire, the council and developers would have to go back to the drawing board.